CBLT crisis
by Darth Uber
Summary: A boy from Earth awakens in an odd world. What semblance does he have? Who are these other kids? Why is he here? What measures will be taken to make him befriend Yang? How the HECK did he end up leader of a team of girls? These questions and more will be answered. Look for humorous references to other anime! OCxRuby, eventual Arkos. Rated M for stuff. NOT A HAREM! Updated monthly!
1. Close Encounters of the Gilded Kind

_**Hey Guys! This is my First Published Fanfiction, so R &R. Tell me what you like and don't like!**_

 _ **You all know the disclaimer that (sometimes) goes up with these things! I own nothing but Team CBLT and their associated gear & yes, Vehicles**_

 **(_-_-_-_NOW, ONWARDS!** **_-_-_-_)**

 _ **CHAPTER 1: Close Encounters of the Golden Kind**_

 _ **Day #01**_

 _ **June 04, 2015**_

 _ **Remnant/Earth**_

Well, about half a week ago, some of my best friends and I were playing an online game, but I was tired. It had been a long day, and I was looking forward to some good, well-earned sleep. I turned on my new audiobook and turned out the lights. Remembering my footpath after years of accidentally trodding on Legos, I dived into bed, falling asleep as soon as I hit the pillows.

"Yo Rubes! look at this guy eyeing my rack!" A female voice said.

I was a bit caught off guard, as I was just going to sleep in my bed and now I was here with a girl standing over me. Thinking it was my sister, I pushed her away and said "Leave me alone Grace, I just went to bed!" Grace's face turned dark purple, and I realized that she had somehow grown taller in the last few hours. I now had my hands in her breasts, pushing on them. Wait, What? Not that I was a pervert or anything, but my sister hadn't even reached puberty yet. I opened my eyes fully and _INSTANTLY w_ oke up. Now, just to let you know, my sister has the darkest skin in our family. She also _Definitely_ didn't have long, puffy blonde hair that reached past her hips.

"Uh Oh!" I yelled, boosting out from under her like she was on fire... Which wasn't far from the truth, considering how angry she looked. Her hair now blazed, and I almost crapped my pants. She had two Golden Gauntlets on her arms, and the air around her burned bright red. The last thing I saw before her fist connected with my face was _Is this a dream or not?_

I snapped awake in my bed, but only a few minutes had passed. Not wanting to resume my dream, I went to the fridge and grabbed a couple of cold ones (water bottles, sheesh) and sat down in front of my laptop. As soon as I opened it, my epic background of Chibi Pacific Rim mechs almost gave me a heart attack, remembering the Blondie's fist swinging at my face. I opened up Internet discoverer and typed in the keywords "realistic dreams". A few moments later, a Bling search appeared. After an hour, I figured it was way too late for looking up serious stuff and switched over to my favorite social media- Goofle mail. I typed up a letter to my best friends, Gabriel and Daniela, explaining my dream and what had happened in it. No response of course, as it was as almost two in the morning. I pushed away from the desk and laid down to read. This was a bad idea, as I was reading an unusually boring book, so you guessed it, I fell back asleep.

Suddenly, I was being shaken awake by an orange-haired girl in a pink dress with a black vest covered by a white breastplate. I sat up quickly this time, not wanting to repeat my last dream, and almost head-butted her, but all I could feel was the wind. I got up, expecting to be mauled by the yellow girl again. Looking around, I away I was in a hospital bed in a room by myself. Wanting to stay longer this time, I got up and looked out the window. As soon as I smelled the air, I knew I wasn't near my house. The air smelled completely different. It was only comparable to lots of crushed roses and...cookies and pancakes. I looked to my side and saw 2 plates of either. Feeling hungry, I ate a few of both. They were delicious, and I ate them so fast I felt uneasy. Why could I eat them so fast? Then I remembered that in this world, physics don't apply the same way they do in real life. I sped out the door, and I looked into the nearest mirror. I had the same features, but they were simplified. The first thing I noticed was my eyes. They were still brown, but they were HUGE, like saucers. And instead of a nose, I had a fat, curved line. My mouth was similarly simple: an ovoid shape with slightly puffed lips. When I opened my mouth, I had no gums, just a row of white with my canines, as they always are, unusually sharp. When I closed my mouth, I noticed that they jutted out a little bit, appearing like short fangs when I closed my mouth. I'd also gotten rid of my 90% overbite. I looked, well, handsome! My body was a mixture of tall, and stocky, but I didn't look like a brute. In fact, I looked very lovable and kind, like a guardian of some sort.


	2. Accidents & Armor

**Hey guys! Me again! This Chapter is why I rated it M, just to Be on the safe side. It's a pretty funny scene, just meant for laughs and to kick the story off. Also, this is not an indicator of how the rest of the story will be! This is gonna be a longer chapter, but that's how some of them will be, as there will be an enemy revealed later on.**

 **(_-_-_-_FORWARD, MARCH!** **_-_-_-_)**

 **CHAPTER 2: Accidents & Armor**

 **Day #01**

 **June 04, 2015**

 **Remnant**

As I was admiring myself in the mirror, the door burst inwards, and the same girl that woke me up first was being held back by her friends.

"Yang," a tall girl with Burgundy and gold colored armor calmly intoned, "calm down!".

"But he grabbed my tits!" Yang yelled, and was already free and running towards me, fingers in a choke hold. Suddenly, something knocked me off the bed and onto the floor. It was that girl again! The nicer one, I think. She had me pinned to the floor, straddling me with her arm pinning mines down, face inches away from mines. I could smell her breath. It smelled like pancakes and syrup. Her chest pressed into mines, and she looked at me long and hard for a few seconds, studying me.

"NORA! How many-mppff?!" One if the shorter girls started to yell. "RUBY, shut up, I wanna see How this plays out!", Yang said, jumping back, right hand covering her half-sister's mouth and eyes and left one doing something with a tablet. I looked at them out of the corner of my eye, pleading. That's when I noticed it. Under my hospital gown, I wasn't wearing anything. Oh Shit! My gown had rolled up, exposing my crotch, which, in contact with the cold floor and the girl on top of me, started to harden. My face turned beet red.

Then, Nora looked me right in the eyes and said, in the most beautiful voice: "Did you like my pancakes?. Still hardening under her, I stammered out a yes. "YIPPEE!" She yelled, and she let go of my arms and leaned back, my erection just barely scraping her thigh. Then she looked up, and there it was again. That angry face. But after a second of Yang staring down at me, she burst into a sly grin. Oh dear, that's the look of a prankster, I thought.

"Nora," Yang asked slyly, noticing my problem. "How happy are you that Mr..." she looked down at me, inquiring my name silently.

"Chris," I croaked out.

"Ok, how happy are you that Chris liked your pancakes?" Yang asked.

"IT'S SUPER-AWESOME-TASTIC!" Nora replied, bouncing up and down, still on top of me. I was never more embarrassed than at that moment. What Nora didn't notice (Yang did) was that every time she bounced, my... stuff was hitting her inner thigh. Through the haze of my clouded vision, I could see Yang had a HUGE grin on her face. I was in so much pleasure that I couldn't say anything, so, as I couldn't take it anymore, I reached past Nora and angled my junk, so when I erm... came, it shot over her head and into Yang's face, some even landing in her grinning mouth.

Double Shit. "Yang? What's that on your face? Did you spill your toothpaste again? Why'd you brush your teeth again?" Nora asked, finally getting off me.

"YANG XIAO LONG THAT WAS TOO FAR!" The crimson one yelled, enraged. Yang was too dumbfounded to move, only managing to twitch her eyes a bit, and I decided to get up and do something. Like, run. Then Yang passed out, clattering to the floor.

"Yang?" Ruby called, her face uncovered due to her sister's fainting.

"Umm sorry", I stammered out, fixing my gown and rubbing my arms together to warm up. The floor felt like ice under my bare feet. "Don't worry about that," the crimson warrior said, smiling "Yang got what was coming to her." In more ways than one, I thought to myself. "Name's Pyrrah Nikos, by the way.", extending her hand, which I shook, she continued: "You've met Yang Xiao Long" pointing at the unconscious girl on the floor,

"Nora Valkyrie" pointing to the orange-haired one, who yelled "Heyo!" to me,

"And last but not least, Ruby." motioning the youngest one over. "Hi!" She quietly but energetically said, sheepishly looking at me like she had a question to ask me. "What's up? I asked her, leaning forward a bit and giving her a crooked grin. I could smell the baking ingredients on her. I gave her a hug, and said "those cookie were really good!", and she started squirming. I let her go and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, then stepped back. Ruby also fainted. I looked over at Pyrrah as I caught her.

"Does Ruby always do this?" I asked, which caused her to break into a wide grin.

"Come on player, we need to get your stuff back." She teased, handing me a robe as we walked past Yang. I stooped down to pick up her scroll while wiping my mess off her face with her abundant hair. She'll kill me for sure if she finds out how she got cleaned. Whoa. Major Deja vu. We were in almost reversed positions from our first encounter. Not wanting her to wake up, I stood up and asked Nora to delete the accusing video and left with Pyrrah, carrying Ruby over

my shoulder. She was very light, which really confused me, as either I'd been working out or she had a lot of stuffing in her dress.

"So, where are you from?" Pyrrah asked me, looking at me quizzically.

I hesitated, unsure of how to answer, thinking of how this would affect my dream."hm... I'm from Maryland." I said, warily.

"Maryland? What kingdom is that in?" She asked, confused. "Umm, I don't know. "I said, still wondering how to answer. Changing the subject, I asked her where she was from, and she stopped in her tracks. "What?" I questioned.

"We're here!" She exclaimed, as we reached a set of lockers. She pulled out a tiny bag. It contained some weapons of unknown make or purpose, but no clothes.

"Where are my clothes?" I asked, just remembering what I had on. As I looked around, a few people -students, I guess - stared at Pyrrah and I. For the first time, I noticed that I had been looking her in the eye, and that she was almost as tall as I was.

"They must've burnt off once Yang hit you with Ember Celica. Why didn't you activate your semblance?" I looked at her, puzzled.

"What's a semblance?" I asked, confused. "It's what makes you you." She chuckled. "Come here." She said, stepping forwards and placing her hand on my shoulder. She mumbled something I couldn't understand, and I felt different somehow. It was as if my body was merging with something, and I was becoming more powerful than ever.

"Soo... What now?" I said, expecting to have some superpower. ""Hah. I don't know. You'll figure it out when the time comes!" She said as we continued walking, and, staring daggers at any passerby who so much as glanced my way, led me to a huge room full of various items of clothing. From overcoats to gloves, the room had it all. "Where does this stuff come from?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"When Huntsmen and Huntresses grow out of their clothes, they go here." A young voice over my shoulder said, letting out a huge yawn causing me to jump.

"Whoa, Ruby, I forgot you were there!" I exclaimed, helping her down from my shoulders to the ground. "Why'd you pass out?" I wondered aloud, cocking my head to the side and looking at her. She blushed the color of her namesake, and stammered out "No reason... let's go hunting!" She said, exploding into a trail of rose petals as she shot off like a cannonball. "Pick me out something too!" I called out after her, absentmindedly grabbing a few out the air and looking down at them. Pyrrah looked at me out the corner of her eye and smiled at me, chuckling.

Embarrassed, I asked "What?". I turned to finish my conversation with Pyrrah, but she was already halfway down the hallway, shoulders heaving. As she reached the ended, she burst into laughter.

Shrugging my shoulder, I wandered through the stuff, not knowing what to choose. Every once in a while, Ruby would come back with a set of clothes, but they were all either too small or too heavy. I didn't want to look like a marshmallow, after all. Every time she came back I would ask her about Pyrrah or Yang. First, she brought me an all-black cloak and a heavy black sword. "What's this?" I asked her.

"It's the Cloak of Midnight. It belonged to a famous Huntsman who died in a tragic accident involving water and a headset." Ruby replied cheerily.

"Umm... how 'bout we put that one back."

After about an hour, I settled on a cobalt trench coat with a dirt-colored border, a shirt of the same color brown, and blue cargo pants with some brown hiking boots. I also grabbed a blue chest holster with a brown outline and clipped my weapons to it. Satisfied, I looked for Ruby, but she was still missing from the last time she dashed off to find some new clothing. I looked around and found a closet that I could use to change into my new clothes. When I found her, it was getting late. The sun had gone down, and I was starting to wonder when I'd wake up. I tried opening and closing my eyes, but I still was there. Suddenly, amidst the smell of old, but clean clothes, I began to smell roses. I went into the back and changed into my new clothes. I came back and sniffed around until I found her-or heard her is more accurate.

She was crying softly, but she had obviously been at it for a while. She was leaning against a pile of clothes, precariously stacked 30+feet tall. Not wanting to embarrass her, I walked around until I could find a safe perch atop a stack of old boxes. I sat there and watched her for a little while, unsure of what to do. After a couple minutes, I decided that I'd rather get yelled at than listen to her crying anymore. I slid down the boxes and ran around the other side and called out her name. "Ruby?" The crying sounds stopped and turned to sniffles, and she tried to ignore me. I cautiously yet confidently walked forward and wrapped my arms around her. Suddenly, there was a blur of movement, and I felt something impact my chest, knocking my wind out. Ruby leaned on her scythe, eyes still red-rimmed with tears.

"OW!" I grunted in pain, doubling over. "Ruby, I'm trying to help you. Sorry for getting too close, but you looked as if you needed a hug!" I said, silently thanking Pyrrah for activating my aura earlier. I probably would have been killed if I had no defense.

"T-thanks," Ruby said, fidgeting uncomfortably as she fiddled with her dress. "I'm sorry that I hit you. It's just- I don't know how to deal with some of the emotions I've been having since coming here." She slid down against the wall and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Tell me about it." I said, sitting down across from her, legs crossed, grateful to be off my feet. "Well... first, I've been treated strangely ever since I've came to Beacon. Everyone I know treats me like a kid" She said, pouting and sticking her bottom lip out.

"Well, that may or may not be unintentional. I mean, you are a bit young for a student at Beacon." I joked, glad her problems weren't serious yet. "I know a little bit about how that feels."

"You do? But you're like, 18 or 19. Plus, you're taller than Pyrrah. Not many people have that trait. You've also knocked one of the strongest students in Beacon out, without laying finger on her. Twice. And, albeit unprovoked, you took a full round from Crescent Rose. And all it did was knock the wind out of you!" As she listed off these facts, I slightly reddened, though it was hard to tell because of my skin color.

"Well, it's nice to know someone noticed. Actually, Ruby, I'm only 16." at this, Ruby gasped, hand covering her mouth, eyes wide in surprise.

"B-but you look so old. But not in a bad way. I mean-"

"It's okay. I've just lived a strange life, and my mom says we males grey early on her side." I said cutting her off.

"Your height?"

"My doctor said I'm done growing... This is it." I said, regretfully.

"Anyways, you should just learn to ignore those who mistreat you. They're probably just looking for a response. My advice- Do the best you can, defy the odds, and be the best Huntress Beacon has ever seen." Ruby slightly blushed, nodding her head.

"Thanks... That's good advice. I'll think about it..." she slowly said, understanding passing over her face.

"Anything else?" I said, scooting forwards, attempting to look into her eyes. She looked downwards, and I knew she was hiding something.

Then it happened.

Attempting to distract me, Ruby knocked me over- playfully this time.

"Oh, you want a rematch do you?" I said, rolling backwards with the hit. "Okay. The rules are- no weapons, no cheap shots, and no choking."

I leapt at her, and we tumbled into a pile of clothing, shooting fabric everywhere. I lost track of her, but she shot out the top of the pile in a flurry of color.

I was dragged into the air by the slipstream, and she punched me hard enough to catapult me into some shelving, knocking it over. I jumped back towards her, and I felt a shockwave pass through the air behind me. We met midair, and I, still a little confused, easily overpowered her, accidentally tackling her into a compromising position for the second time that day. She was grimacing in pain, and for a second, I thought I had hurt her, then she placed her foot under me and rolled me over her head. She was now on top of me. I pushed with all my might, grabbing her hands and lifting her fully off the ground, then I flipped her over and pinned her down, hands on hers and hips together, my legs pinning hers down. We were inches apart, and I could smell her rose perfume heavily.

"Submit!" I growled in her ear.

"Whew, Chris!" Ruby said, letting out a breath that smelt like cookies. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

"When you've got 3 siblings, you've gotta learn some wrestling skills!" I said, letting up and standing to my feet, extending my hand to her.

As she grasped my hand, I looked down at her, and she looked up at me, and as our eyes met, I felt an instant connection with her. She was suffering from the same thing I was in real life. She was a Good friend to all but best to none. That was when I discovered my first semblance ability. Empathy. I saw some of her memories: her underestimation by everyone around her, her unrequited crush on Jaune, the dance she had meticulously planned, yet had ended up dancing by herself-she looked stunning in that dress, by the way-. As her memories flooded mines, i could only wonder if said process went both ways.

I was still looking into her eyes, but the smile was gone. She was slowly breaking down, and it was only a matter of time before she cracked. She needed a friend and a Good one for that matter. I reached over and drew her into a tight hug, breathing in the cloying scent of roses.

"Stop that! Let me go!" she stammered out, weakly trying to break free of my tight grip. "Why are you doing this?" she said, voice cracking heavily. "Ruby. I don't know why I'm here, but I have a feeling that it has to do with you." I said, holding her by the shoulders and looking at her.

"I will do anything that I can to help you, and I want you to know that." I continued. "It's okay to be open with people about your true feelings. If not me, then I'll talk to your sister, or Pyrrah.

I'm sure they can help you out." Then she burst into tears, and accepted my embrace. Wiping her tears away with my thumb, I rubbed her back as she just cried for a while. I had found a neat watch that told the time in addition. You took the first number and that was the hour. Then you added the lit up numbers to get the time. Anyways, we cried together for a while, and it was 9 when she fell asleep, eyes swollen with tears.

Soon afterwards, I fell asleep as well, and woke up to my sister poking me in the ribs and telling me to get up. As she poked me in the cheek, she yelled in panic. I yelled too, thought it was because of the pain from Yang's punch earlier. Then, I noticed and my brain went into hyper drive. _Ohmygodthatwasallrealandijustfellasleepwithagirlinmyarms._ "Hey Grace, can you get me an ice pack?" I asked, the right side of my face already numb. "Yeah, sure," she said. "How'd you get that bruise?" She asked, coming back with the ice pack and some Advril, a pain medication. "I must've fallen out of my bed or something. I'm lucky I didn't poke out an eye out!" I said, sheepishly. Then, I flashed my trademark lopsided grin at her and asked her:

"So, how'd you sleep?"

"MOOOM!"

 **(_-_-_-_END OF CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **So, what'd You guys think? I am going to try having one chapter Be in Remnant and one chapter be on Earth, as I try to figure out what is happening. The Earth chapters will be a little shorter, though!**

 **R &R!**

 **See you next week for the next installment!**


	3. A Trip To The Doctor

**Here's a Bonus Chapter, as I don't know if I'll be able to get on next week! How'd you like the previous one? These Earth Chapters will probably be a lot shorter that the Remnant ones, only 'cause my life is soo boring. Just to let you know, each chapter except the first and second one takes place a different day. And, to explain the concept if you don't understand, when I go to sleep at night _here,_ It's actually morning/daytime when I wake up in Remnant. Now, without further filibustering, Here's Chapter 3!**

 **(_-_-_-_EULALIA!** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 3: A Trip to The Doctor**

 **Day #02**

 **June 05, 2015**

 **Earth**

A FEW HOURS LATER:

After my mom came running up the stairs, I was bundled up and taken to the emergency room despite my protests. Once we got there, the doctors and nurses pondered my strange injury. They didn't know what to make of it, as I had no history of sleepwalking.

A decade it so back, however, when we moved in to this house, my parents said I had lots of night terrors, and I'd often wake up in a cold sweat, screaming. I was too young to remember at that time, but I was told my parents would get no sleep those nights. I'm convinced our house is alive. Sometimes the TVs turn on at random times, and the house creaks, like there's someone in the halls. I later found out that the TVs were several years old, and the house was built on a hill, so it was constantly settling. That slightly helped me, but to this day, I jump whenever I'm alone in the house and I hear the hall creaking. I also never go in the basement when the lights are off, just to be safe!

With all these factors, they just assumed I was tossing and turning and I rolled off the bed. When my mom brought me home, we stopped at our local Chip-fil-a and got some chocolate chip cookie sundaes, my favorite treat. As I ate, I remembered my strange event last night, and I knew I wanted to try and get back as soon as possible so I could talk to Ruby and the others. I almost choked on my food when I remembered where I had fallen asleep.

"Mom," I asked, polishing off the rest of my food in an instant, "may we go home? I have SAT'S tomorrow, so I've gotta get home early to study and sleep!" I've never been so glad to have a test as I was that night! We got home at 4 pm, so I had an hour to study and go back to sleep so I could wake up before Ruby did. Fortunately, I'd been studying, hard, so I was ready! I jumped into bed and read a page or two of math, which was the only thing I was bad at. I was excellent at the other two, with a 90th percentile in CR and a 75th percentile in Writing. I guess all those hours reading paid off! I grabbed a few boxes of raisins (yes, raisins!) and a water bottle from my backpack and settled in for the night.

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN AUTHOR'S NOTE** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Not many chapters where the Notes are as big as the text, eh? This will be the last chapter before things get interesting, I swear!**


	4. Awkward AwakeningMeeting the Professor

**Author's note:**

 **This chapter was kind of rushed, so I'm sorry for any errors. Also, some, If not all, of these chapters had a sort of theme song that I listened to while writing them. The Theme song for this one is Astronaut-rain, Varia remix.**

 **-8/27/15 UPDATE-**

 **Thanks to the review by Gio for telling me I accidentally put up Chapter 2 again as Chapter 4. I wonder how long it's been like that... Anyways, here it is!**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Day #02**

 **June 05, 2015**

 **Remnant**

Chapter 4: Awkward Awakening/ Meeting the Professor

I awoke in the warehouse again, wrapped in a brown blanket, and looked down to see Ruby with her arms around me, eyes still a bit swollen. We stayed like this a few minutes, as I tried to figure out what to do. I decided to have a look at the bottom of my shoes to see what had made me jump so high. On the underside of my boots, there was a small strip of metal. I them felt around my sole, hitting a trigger, and my shoe bucked. Hitting the trigger again, I watched the underside, where the metal strip popped out rapidly each time I hit the trigger.

When I tried to get up, Ruby awoke, yawning and mumbling something into my chest.

"Huh?" I said, not understanding her.

"I said 'Good morning, Weiss!'" She yawned again, louder this time as she stretched her arms, face still buried in my chest.

"Umm... Who or what is a Weiss?" I asked, puzzled.

"Stop playing games, Weiss" she said sleepily sitting up and yawning once more.

As she looked up, her eyes widened, and, putting two and two together, she blushed profusely and leapt away from me like a scalded cat!

"Who are you? And what are you doing in my bed?" she said, panicking and reaching for a red, oblong shape.

I knew what was coming, so I interrupted her and, hoping I guessed correctly, said. "No Ruby, I didn't do anything! You, Pyrrah and I were looking for some clothes for me, and after I went to try them on, I found you." I then proceeded to tell her what happened last night, and her blush deepened.

"Y-you mean you know about Jaune?" That last part came out in a whisper.

"Yes, I know about him, and, from what your memories told me, he seems like a nice guy. I can't wait to meet him!" I was _mostly_ being truthful, but the thought of her with anyone but me saddened me. Oh man, this is gonna be just like in real life. I have to help a girl I like with a crush on someone else...

"Waait a second!" Ruby said, quizzically. "Can you read minds?" She asked in amazement, proving once again she does use some of her grey matter.

"I don't know, I mean, it's only happened with you so far, so it could just be a psychic bond or maybe it just came naturally with you!" I said, wondering aloud

"Hmmm... I wonder why? Maybe-" She started to say, but I cut her off. "Let's go to breakfast!" I said, hungry.

Gathering up my resolve, I linked my arm through hers- and walked almost straight into Yang, who was _just_ putting away her scroll. "Going somewhere?" She smiled at me menacingly. Crap, not her again!

"Oh. Umm... Hi?

"Yo! I just got some _niiice_ pics of you two. Did Ruby finally find her _wild_ side?"

We both blushed, though mines was a little less obvious, due to my darker skin.

"EEW YANG!" Ruby unlinked our arms and stepped in front of me, hands on her hips

"Why would you say something like that? He's just trying to help me, and you seriously need to calm down."

"Help do what, sis? _Loosen up?_ " Yang joked, still pressing her point. "I would've thought you'd wait for Jaune to _come_ around!" I could almost feel Ruby wince at that joke.

"Very funny, _Goldie_. I'll be sure to do tell him that once you tell me where you got that wig." I retorted, giving Ruby time to recover. Yang glared at me, and her gauntlets started spinning.

"Yang, don't! We didn't do anything." Ruby said, pulling Yang's wrists down. "You can fight him in the arena in a few days!" My smile died in my throat.

"What arena?" I asked, paling.

"I'll see you there!" Yang said and stalked off.

"-On second thought," I said, rethinking my earlier words concerning me talking to Yang "I wanna keep my life, so you can talk to her about last night"

Then, my brain caught up.

"R-Ruby!?" I stammered out. "What did you just sign me up for?" I asked, worried.

She replied with a look on her face that said _haven't you done this before?_

"I haven't even met with Professor Ozpin yet to figure out what I'm doing here!" I said, scared that I'd die here all over something stupid.

"Fiiine," she whined, "let's go talk to Ozpin, then we can go to lunch and I'll introduce you to the rest of my friends," she said. Tentatively grabbing my hand and leading me to an elevator, which we rode up to his office. As we ascended, she dropped my hand and sort of stared at me, like she wanted to tell me something but she couldn't.

"What's up, Ruby?" I asked, puzzled.

"Oh, nothing, "she said, absentmindedly kicking her foot. "I just wanted to ask you if you truly meant what you said back there... about Jaune..."

"It's fine, Ruby, you can tell me anything... After all, I _did_ glimpse your mind earlier." I added, jokingly.

"Well, it's just-" She was interrupted as the Elevator door chimed,

"We'll finish this conversation later..." She said, walking out and beckoning for me to follow. Eventually, we came to what I assumed was the Professor's office. Ruby knocked on the door.

"Professor? May we come in?"

"Hello, Ms. Rose, how may I help you and your friend?" A kind but stern voice issued from a speaker next to the door.

"Hey Ozpin, we were just wondering what to do about my friend Chris's situation." Ruby piped up. The door opened, and we walked in. In the center of the room was a desk, with a chair behind it. The chair was obviously occupied, but it sat with its back to us.

The chair turned, and in it was a man with white hair, ancient glasses, and a very mean looking cane wearing green clothes.

"Ahh, yes, the 'visitor' Ms. Xiao Long put in the hospital Ward?" He said with a smile, taking a sip of his coffee. "I hope you're doing better. I'm sorry she did that."

I began to feel wary. Apparently, the man noticed, because he sent Ruby out.

"Ruby, may you guard the door? I don't want anyone eavesdropping in on our conversation." Ruby looked at me, and I nodded.

"Sure thing, just don't be _too_ hard on him!" She left out the room, humming, hips and black dress swaying side to side... side... to _side... side to si-_

Ozpin cleared his throat, and I realized I had been staring.

"Now, How may I help you?" He asked. "I see you have taken a shine to Ms. Rose."

"Heh... Oh. Yeah, she seems nice, but the real reason I came to your office was because I don't know what I'm doing." I said, hoping he could understand me.

"What do you mean Here? You're at Beacon."

"What's that?"

"Oh, I see... You're from Earth, aren't you?" Ozpin said, nonchalantly.

 _Wait what? How'd you know that?_ I asked myself.

"Yes, you are. You have it written all over your face." as he reached for a hidden button.

"Don't even think about it!" I shouted, unsure of what else to do. My hands reached for my weapons, which I hoped were loaded.

Suddenly, the door flew open, and a lady in a white button up blouse and black skirt and a lot of some sort of guard came in.

"No need to get violent, Chris" she said. I panicked, grabbing my weapons, which looked like a pair of laser tag guns, and shot the window.

Bursting out, I jumped out the window, immediately regretting it. I was _at least_ a hundred feet up, and there was no immediate way to slow my fall. Hopefully, physics didn't apply when falling here.

As I descended, there was a small, green vehicle the color of a forest rising up towards me, and as it neared me, a deafening voice split the air.

"CEASE AND DESIST IMMEDIATELY!" The machine -an Airship- I deduced -from going through Ruby's memories- ascended at a tremendous speed, and it had flashing red & blue lights mounted on its top and sides. I almost thought about angling onto it, but realized how foolish that would be. As I neared it, a red blur smacked into me. As we fell, I struggled with my assailant, but I was no match for them at aerial combat, and we were plummeting so fast I couldn't see their face. Since I was on the bottom, I felt the impact first. Crashing me through a roof and smack into a row of tables surrounded by students eating lunch, I slid down it 'til the end. Suddenly, there was a huge, oversized red-and-black scythe pointed at my throat. I tried to get up, but there was a boot on my chest, pinning me down.

"Make another move... and I'll cut...your head off" Ruby's voice cracked at the end of the sentence, overcome by emotion, tears running down her face. As the roof somehow put itself back together, the lady in the white blouse stomped in. _How did she get here so fast? I wondered._ Taking in the situation, with Ruby standing over me, she walked over, and, signaling the girl down, she placed a pair of handcuffs on me, as the guards came in and disarmed me roughly.

"How could you? Less than 20 minutes ago, you said you were here to help me!" Ruby sobbed, not looking at me as I was marched past her. Then the next words she said almost broke my heart: "I thought you were my friend!"

I was marched out the door. As they walked me through Beacon, Pyrrah, followed by a blonde boy- Jaune, I guess, and a few other people, including Yang, burst in, already fully armored and weapons at the ready. Seeing me in handcuffs and Ruby completely broken down, Yang stormed over to me, past the guards, and grabbed me by the collar, lifting me up off the ground.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER YOU SICK FREAK!" She yelled into my face, weapons already warming up.

"I did nothing! It was Ozpin trying to kill me!" I said a few tears breaking past my defenses in my anger and confusion. I lost control. Suddenly, all the power went out, and arced into me. I released it into a wave, forcing Yang to let go of me and everyone else to fall to their knees. As they recovered, I ran to the one place I knew- the clothes warehouse. Hot tears streamed down my face as I ran there, bumping into several students as I leapt past, and I was out of breath when I got there.

"Stand down, it doesn't have to be like this." Ozpin said, brandishing his cane.

"YOU!" I yelled, and I launched myself at him, a huge shockwave bursting behind me. Ozpin sighed, like mad students attempting to throttle him was commonplace. The last thing I felt was an impact with my head before I lost consciousness.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **What? No Author's note? How can that be? hope you enjoyed the chapter**


	5. Prison Stay

**HEY PEOPLE OF THE INTERNET! I'm currently "enjoying" a summer program at my local university, but I'm also writing a Research Paper at the same time.**

 **(_-_-_-_UPDATE_-_-_-_)**

 **I've finished my Program today, and, while In the overview of the story said it's updated weekly, I'll be updating it more than that. That just means _at least_ on per week. Now, you all don't come here to read all this. The next two chapters don't have any music associated with them. Also, I don't own anything really, but I did come up with Team CBLT and their respective Weapons!**

 **(_-_-_-_End Author's Note_-_-_-_)**

 **Day #03**

 **June 06, 2015**

 **Remnant**

CHAPTER 5: Prison Stay

I awoke with a splitting headache, hyperventilating. I got up and got some water. When I looked at my watch, it was midnight. Seven hours had passed since I had gone to sleep, and there was still a few hours to go before I had to leave. Wanting to get as much time as possible to figure out what to do, I laid back down and went to sleep.

I woke up, headache still coursing through my brain. I had a large welt the size of a ping pong ball on my forehead.

"Ah, you're awake. " said Ozpin in his usual monotonous voice.

I looked around, taking in my situation. I was in small room with a few cells and a small window in the back of each. This made not much sense to me, as there were tons of bright, fluorescent lights, but hey, I didn't design the prison. It actually looked quite like the walls had been knocked out of a few dorms and the windows had been shrunk down to look more intimidating.

Ozpin smiled grimly at me, noticing my surprise. "These used to house students at Beacon. Now they house our unwanted guests." He said, confirming my suspicions. "Now, why did you try to shoot me?" He asked.

"I didn't try to shoot you!" I shouted, angry. "Is that why you sent Ruby after me? I shot out THE WINDOW!".

It was at this point I noticed that I was chained, hand and foot, to the wall. On the opposite wall, a slim mirror I recognized as one-way glass reflected my image. My coat was covered in blackened, burnt food stains from my takedown by Ruby and from conducting all that electricity. I still don't know how I did that, but Yang's face as she was shocked made me smirk.

"What's so funny?" Ozpin asked.

"Nothing," I mumbled. "Now are you going to let me go or not?" I asked.

"Yes, I'll let you go," Ozpin said with a sigh. "Just try to keep out of trouble. I'll tell Ruby and the others." He said.

"No need," came a voice from the corner, causing me to jump in surprise.

Glynda Goodwitch walked out from behind a wall, then continued,

"I'm sure they're listening in at the control room." She opened the iron door, and walked out.

"Now, as I was saying earlier, you're from Earth, correct?" Ozpin asked as he pulled out a key and undid the restraints.

" Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked, as he walked me out.

"We've had a few people from your world start appearing over the past week."

"Oh, that's why you weren't surprised!" I exclaimed, smacking my face with my hand, feeling like an idiot.

Ozpin inclined his head, almost imperceptibly. "Now that you're here, we have enough for a team. You'll be the leader, should you accept.".

"But I don't even go here. Oh, you're inviting me to attend here?" I said, puzzled He nodded, the first real smile I had seen spreading across his face. "Well then, I accept!" I said, thrusting out my hand and hoping I knew what I was getting myself into.

I didn't.

As he led me out of the final doorway in the "prison", I was attacked by Ruby, who punched me in the gut then dragged me into a fierce hug, causing me to blush a deep shade of crimson

"Don't you ever do that again," she sobbed into my shoulder. I looked over at her head at Yang, who was in a brawler's stance, fists up, ready to fight me then and there. Pyrrah, who just looked relieved, clutched Jaune's hand, who looked almost just as embarrassed as I was, and Nora cheered. Also present was a short, pale girl in a white dress and heels, an asian-looking guy in a green robe, and a girl in tight white and black outfit with a bow in her hair who looked like a magician.

Yang, as usual, just glared at me. I disentangled myself from Ruby and went over to Jaune, shaking his hand.

"You must be Jaune Arc. I've heard so much about you from Ruby! Nice armor!" He just stared, probably wondering what else Ruby had told me.

I then moved on to Pyrrah. "Hey, how's it been?" I said, shaking her hand. "It has been excellent, and Jaune's been getting better at his training." "Cool," I said, releasing my grip and moving on to Yang. Her hair was streaked with black, and her jacket smelled like smoke, courtesy of last night's surprise.

"'Shocked' to see me Yang?" I joked, poking her in the rib.

She grabbed my hand and twisted it behind my back, whispering in my ear. "Never. Mess. With. My. Hair. Ever. Again!" She growled "Ummm, okay" I said. I'd apologize to her later. A little static from earlier traveling from my hand to hers caused her to yelp and jump away. "Watt Did I do?" I asked in mock surprise, moving down the line to Nora and giving her a fist bump.

"Got anymore pancakes for me to try? I'm famished!" I said, rubbing my stomach.

"We would, but I ate all the syrupy ones, they were delicious!" She said cheerily. "Oookay then..." I said, saddened, her pancakes were one of the best things I had eaten there. Running out of names, I shot a glance at Ruby.

"Oh Yeah, this is Weiss Schnee, my partner, and Lie Ren and Blake Belladonna. "Hello, Ma'am," I said, kneeling and taking Weiss's hand, kissing it formally, causing her to stand up straighter and blush quickly. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance!" she said.

Someone coughed, and I moved on to the others. "Hello" I said to both Ren and Blake at the same time and shook Ren's hand and nodded at Blake. "Now that those introductions are out of the way, let me introduce you to your team." Ozpin said.

 **(_-_-_-_A/N_-_-_-_)**

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter! Also, next episode introduces Team CBLT. Also, if you wonder why some of my chapters have very different lengths, I wanted it to be like the show, where some episodes were short, five minute ones and some were ten or twenty minute episodes.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	6. Meeting My Team & First Lessons

**Heyo! Once again, I have released more than one chapter this week. I'm sorry, But I just love this story so Much!**

 **(_-_-_-_はじめ_-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 6: Meeting My Team/ First Lessons_**

 ** _Day #03_**

 ** _June 06, 2015_**

 ** _Remnant_**

Out of the crowd that had gathered to see the first prisoner in years be released, three girls stepped out. I didn't recognize them, but they all looked familiar. The shorter girl had skin the color of mocha, and she had on glasses and a slightly overhanging lip. She had a small, but not thin build, with brown hair tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing a lavender t-shirt and some purple cargo pants with padded shoes that looked more like thin slippers. She looked at me quizzically, as they all did, probably trying to figure out who I was. The other girl was obviously Hispanic, with brown, perfect hair that ended in lighter hues. Strangely, two cat ears poked out. I also noticed she had a faint blush on her face. She was average height, but she was dressed in tan shorts a little too high for my liking with a tail poking out the rear, and she had on a brown slit top that showed way too much skin on the sides, and the fact that she obviously wasn't wearing anything beneath. I made a mental note to remind her of that ASAP. A thin trickle of blood ran down my chin, and I wiped it away. She was also wearing some sandals with metal spikes on the bottom. The final member of my team was a girl who was only a few inches shorter than me, but stockier in that she was... uh... well endowed. She had skin the color of caramel, and she had frizzy hair tied down in braids along the sides of her head in a halo. She wore a teal, long sleeved shirt and some Jean shorts with some light blue military boots.

"Chris, meet the other members of Team CBLT: Lydia, Brie-Anne, and Tiffany." Ozpin said proudly.

"Hey," I said, for the first time, unsure of what to do. _How am I supposed to lead a team of girls?_ I wondered.

"We'll make the best of it! Your first exam begins tomorrow. Your teammates will show you to your dorms. See you tomorrow." Ozpin said, and walked off to God-knows-where.

"Yay. Tests," I grumbled. "One second, team!" I asked, walking over to Ruby.

"What is the entrance exam?" I asked, puzzled. Teams RWBY and JNPR looked at me sullenly.

"It helps you pick your partner," Ruby said. "Beyond that, I can't tell you."

"Oh, Yeah, " I said, remembering something, "We need to figure out what my weapons can do as well as discuss some strategies. I want to see our team's abilities." Lydia looked at me sheepishly."I'll meet you all there." She said before running off into the dusk towards a tall garage.

"Ookay then... Is she always like that?" I asked.

"Well, she was the first of us to arrive here. She is still the _smallest_ person here though!" Bri-Anne said, giggling as she seductively jiggled her breasts as we were led through the hallways to the training facility. "So, where ya from, honey?" She said, Californian accent evident.

"I'm from Lower Marlboro.", I said.

"Oh, that's where she lives, you must know each other!" Ruby stopped, and my face fell as I put the puzzle together. That was _that_ Lydia. "Oh, this is one surprise after another." I said, face palming. "She and I don't get along very well. At all." I said, and Ruby perked up.

"Why?" She asked.

"I don't even remember. It's been so long, I just forgot it." We walked along in our little groups, Tiffany and Bri-Anne in their cluster and Ruby and I in ours, the rest if the two Teams had broken off to go to dinner. I figured I had a good hour and a half before I had to wake up and go to testing. Jaune walked ahead, by himself. "Go talk to him!" I pressed.

"About what?" She hissed back.

"Anything: the weather, complement him- do something!"

"Why? It's just a normal da-" she started. "Either you do it or I do." I said, receiving silence for an answer.

"Hey Jaun-mmgh-" Ruby covered my mouth with her hands, putting me in a choke hold, her chest noticeably pressing into my back. Jaune looked back at us, confused. Her grip slackened, and I tried flipping her over my head. Failing midway, I tripped and fell over into Jaune. Ruby fell over his shoulder and he caught me like in a trust fall. Unfortunately, my face was looking right up her dress.

"Gahh!" I said, making the quick decision to close my eyes. Jaune set me up easily and did the same for Ruby, who thanked him and blushed profusely. Fortunately, we made it the rest of the way without incident.

Pushing thoughts of Ruby away, I began to spar with Jaune, our weapons clashing. I found out that the guns were strange pistols. Pulling the trigger back the right way switches them into electrified estocs 3 feet long. Sharp on one side and the top and blunt on the other, they can be used to slice or to crush. I was a quick learner, so I only needed to learn the basics. I didn't electrify my swords, because I didn't want to hurt Jaune.

While we fought, I asked him what he thought about Ruby. "She seems nice, and I enjoy being around her." Jaune said. I smiled, but inside I was fuming "She's almost like another one of my sisters." I faltered and almost lost my head, ducking at the last moment.

"You mean, you don't see her as a possible love?" Now it was his turn to grin. "No. I like her, but not in that way," he said, putting his hand behind his head in a fancy parry, blocking my two blades. Fifteen minutes later, we were still fighting, Ruby cheering us both on. Suddenly, there was a thumping sound that got nearer and nearer, and the ground began to shake. Tiffany and Bri-Anne kept on fighting, apparently used to it. Tiffany used a teal greatsword, and she used it well. It turned into a light machine gun of the same color. Bri-Anne used a pair of bronze Khopesh that changed into heavy machine gun pistols. Running outside, I found I was looking up at a 7 foot tall heavy suit of armor. Coated in an opaque glossy purple paint, the ensemble was almost invisible in the dark. As the armored hands reached up to take the helmet off, the seals hissed. A bright ring of lights flashed around the collar. It was Lydia. Our tank. I had just been replaced.

"Whoa, Lydia?" I said, "Where'd you get that? Nice look!" I said. "Ozpin thought it'd be good for me." she said flatly. She came in and started to practice her aim. She hit a button and rows of practice drones fell out the walls, ceilings, and floor and began to walk towards her. She reached back and pulled out a glossy, extremely long gun, crackling with electricity. She fired it, and the whole building shook. Each shot found its target, and they exploded. There were still a dozen left though, and they were too close to use the gun, so she switched it into a greatsword and easily started hacking the remaining drones to bits. "Whoa, remind me never to get on her bad side!" I said, a little scared of how much power she was wielding. We continued sparring for a while though.

Almost an hour had passed, so I stopped sparring and asked them about the creatures we would face. "Oh, there's only a few different types of Grimm." Ruby said, innocently kicking the floor "There's Boarbatusks, which are small, agile, and they usually hunt in large packs of several dozen. Their hide is armored, so try to flip them over and get their bellies." We nodded, and she continued. "Then there's Beowolves. They also hunt in packs, but are a lot larger, nearer to our size. Just try to kill as many as possible, and they should run away." Lydia stomped her feet, clicking a button in her armor, and it folded into a backpack, anxious to finish talking and go.

"The largest of the regular ones is an Ursa. They are huge, but they're normally solitary. The tallest one I've seen was over twice your height. Kill them in the normal manner. They can either crawl or walk on two legs. ". I nodded eagerly, as I hadn't gone to the bathroom in a long time.

"Then there's the stronger ones." Ruby said, and stopped, looking me straight in the eye. "Avoid these at all costs! They're much harder to defeat. The first one is the King Tajitu. These are half black and half white. They have two heads. Their size varies, but Ren says the one he killed was around 50-100 feet long. They are extremely fast, and their bite is poisonous. All the big ones are solitary. Crush their heads or cut them off. "She said. "Then there's the Death Stalkers. They are a whole lot faster. They have 8 legs and two massive pincers as the front pair." At this point Jaune interjected. "They're one of the most dangerous kinds, because they have heavy armored exoskeletons and a tail with a huge stinger at the end. They're usually found in caves. Their stinger glows in the dark. I got tossed hundreds of feet away by a single flick. Leave. Them. Alone." He blushed and growled out the last three words, and I made a note to ask Ruby about that.

"If you do, however, pick a fight with one, we had to ram the stinger into its head." He finished. "Finally, you have the Nevermores. They are like huge birds, with a 50+ foot wingspan. They shoot out barbed feathers, so also avoid them. They can be hard to kill, but try to attack the head." She finished, panting and out of breath. "OK, that's enough for today. Let's go get some sleep!" Lydia said, getting up.

Tiffany led us to our room, which was just around the corner from teams RWBY and JNPR, fortunately. As we awkwardly got dressed for bed, I asked my team a question: "What do you think of me? As a leader, I mean." I asked Lydia, since Bri-Anne was in the shower, and so was Tiffany. "I honestly don't know, yet. You remind me of someone I knew back on earth. That guy was really annoying, but he had a good, if odd, heart. The few times we talked, it was about books. He always seemed to know more than he let on about most of our books, and he had one pattern. I admit, it took me about a year to notice it. His favorite characters were always the loners or the ones who walked the line between good and evil. I always wondered if it was because he was one of them." While she shared this story, I resolved to stop messing with her on Earth. I leaned over and gave her a hug. She pushed me away and turned around in her bed. I couldn't tell if she was blushing or angry, or both. I got up.

And promptly sat right back down. Bri-Anna and Tiffany were arguing loudly back and forth about something. That wasn't the problem, though. The real problem was that they weren't in anything but towels, and Bri-Anna's was rapidly falling. "Brie!" I yelled, and the nickname stuck. "Your towel... it's... falling!" I finished. "So what?" She said, seductively, letting the rest of the towel drop. I covered my eyes, but I could hear her footsteps coming towards me.

"Tiffany, do something!" I pleaded, as Brie ran a finger from my hand to my collarbone and then straight down into my waistband, missing my crotch by inches. I smacked her hand away. "She's messing with you Chris. Ignore her. "Tiffany said, reading a book as Brie crawled on top of me, straddling my hips, cat ears twitching. _Easy for you to say_ , I thought, inwardly wondering how or even if I should react. Fortunately, I had a prior appointment.

"OK, _STOP,_ Brie. That's not appropriate for a huntress. Get your ass in bed, "I said firmly. She stopped, smirking, and got up and, taking the bed next to me, wiggled her hips seductively as she bent over to get into her bed. I don't know what came over me, but I reached over and slapped it. _Hard._ Instantly, she yelped and stood up straight, skin turning pink. She got into bed without another word. _Great, that's just great. In a little over 24 hours I've_ technically _lost my virginity, fallen asleep with a girl in my arms,_ and _almost got seduced by a crazy teammate. Whom I just slapped. In the butt. "It's_ gonna be a long night" I sighed, half aloud, noticing that I was drooling.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **So, What'd you guys think of the introduction of my team? I just want to clarify some things first. This is** ** _not_** **going to be a Harem. The previous scene will be explained in the next Chapter. Just a series of unconnected events, I swear!**


	7. Testing & Talks

**_Hey guys, This is a combo chapter, as well as the sort of calm before the storm. I'm working on the next chapter, which is currently so long it needs to be broken up into 3 parts. This is probably my favorite chapter so far. Now, without further ado, I present Chapter 7_**

 **(_-_-_-_** **_-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 7: Testing & Talks_**

 ** _Day #03_**

 ** _June 06, 2015_**

 ** _Earth/ Remnant_**

I woke up just in time to get some breakfast and print out my admission ticket. I grabbed my wallet and my backpack that had all my testing things and headed to the car, bag flopping on my back as I drove to my doom at the testing center. As I got there and stood in line, Lydia's, older brother saw me.

"Hey, what's up?" He said, giving me a high-five.

"Where's your sister?" I asked.

"Oh, she's at home practicing for our piano competitions later today." He said stepping forward in line.

"So, you ready for the SAT'S?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I hope so!"

I was next in line. It was already 7:40 when I got there, so I was just in time. I pulled out my sheet and looked at it. First off, it was in black and white. Then I noticed that the important information was missing. I groaned but handed it to the lady anyways. She just told me to go to a computer to reprint it, but by the time I had done so, everyone else had come in already, so I was the last one to get into the room. As the tester droned on and I filled out hundreds of dots in 4 hours, I frequently found by thoughts drifting to Ruby and my team's big day tomorrow. During the test, I had to read a section on cats' behavior, which made me think of how strange Brie was acting last night. Let's not go into detail, but from the data I amassed while reading, I guessed she was in heat. _Well this is gonna be a problem_ , I thought. Quickly finishing up the section, I moved on. When I finished, David was a few minutes behind, but, as always, his mom got there first. Waving, he pulled off.

 _My_ mom arrived twenty minutes later, during which time I tried to figure out my strategy for tonight as well as think about whom to try to partner up with. It didn't really matter, as we were already assigned our team, but I just didn't want to be with Brie, seeing as though she had her "problem", because we'd be the only ones for miles in any direction. That meant absolutely no backup. As we drove home, I almost asked my mom an odd question.

"How long does an umm... never mind." She kept on driving, looking back at me in the rearview mirror quizzically.

"How was the test?" She asked. I talked to her, discussing some of the material on the test, as well as what had transpired in the hallway. We stopped at a fast food place and ate lunch. I got a pizza and fries while she got a healthy(er) salad. We made small talk, and we didn't get home until 3. I did a lesson of math and physics, then I came down and made several Pb & j sandwiches for later, then ate one and went back to my room. I laid down, and closed my eyes, making a mental note to get all my teammates numbers ASAP to keep in contact.

I was awakened by a soft, but constricting feeling surrounding me. I groggily opened my eyes, and there was a naked cat lady wrapped around me with her face nuzzled into my shoulder and her arms wrapped around me. Her soft, supple flesh gave way as I pried myself out of her grip.

 _Oh, gosh Brie, chill_ I thought to myself. I mean, she _was_ hot, but she was only acting this way because she was in heat. I swung my foot off the bed and hit something soft, but blocking me from getting out. The air shimmered, and she let out a sigh.

"What is that?" I whispered. _Is she doing this,_ I thought, looking over at her naked, sleeping, form. She _was_ really attractive, but I knew I was only interested in the physical side. Several perverted thoughts ran through my mind, causing me to blush. To assuage the dirty thoughts, I removed my shirt and put it on her, then I shook her awake. She yawned, and started to get up, like it was perfectly normal to wake up in someone else's bunk. The field shimmered and dissipated. I grabbed her shoulder, preventing her from getting out of my bed fully so I could ask her some questions.

"Question number 1: Why are you naked in my bed? Number 2: what was that thing you were just doing while you were sleep?"

Surprisingly, she apologized, and confirmed my suspicions. "I'm also sorry if anything else happens, but I should be back to normal in a few days. " pausing, she looked at me and I nodded

"Okay, but _please_ don't do this again!" I implored her.

"I kinda can't help it. As for your second question," she continued, "I must have been projecting a field while I slept. Thanks for the shirt, by the way. Most guys I know wouldn't have done that for me." she leaned over and gave me a quick peck on the cheek, which prompted my blush to return. _Now I know how Ruby felt the other day,_ I thought.

"I call the shower first!" I said abruptly, wanting to wash up before I'd undoubtedly get dirty for the next couple of days as well as get away from her before I did something stupid.

Brie's eyes glazes over, and she got that blush in her cheeks. "Can I join you?" She asked, biting her lip while twirling a lock of her hair in between her fingers.

"No." I croaked out as I quickly went into the bathroom and closed and locked the door behind me.

I turned the shower water on and stood outside of it, waiting for the water to heat up before I got in. It was one of my habits. I often had the water on the hottest setting, but the only cold water I could stand was in a cup to drink. Fully heated, the water felt glorious on my skin. I washed slowly, making sure I got every minute I could from this experience. After a few minutes, I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower to dry off and get dressed. As I was pulling on my pants, I heard a lot of noise coming from our room. I quickly finished pulling up my pants and opened the door.

A strange scene awaited me: Lydia was hanging onto the bed with one arm and the other one was wrapped around Brie's midriff. Tiffany was likewise stretched from the other bed. Brie, however was straining to get to the showers first. There were claw marks all over the bedpost, and she bolted past me, having shaken free of their grip and slammed the bathroom door so hard that a crack formed in the door jamb.

I heard footsteps running to our door.

"What is that infernal racket you all are making?" a feminine voice groaned on the other side of the door, obviously extremely annoyed at being awakened this early. It _was_ only six o'clock anyways.

"Nothing much, Weiss, just a battle for the showers." I said calmly.

"Well can you SHUT UP? I'm trying to get my beauty sleep!" She put an emphasis on the words shut up.

I opened the door to explain, but what I didn't notice was that it was sagging inwards a bit. As it opened, someone fell back. They'd obviously been leaning on the door. Automatically, my arm stretched out to catch whoever was now falling towards me. Ruby tipped backwards and my well placed hand stopped her from falling. As I caught her, she let out an unintentionally _cute_ grunt. I chuckled, and my breath caught in my throat as I looked down and lost myself in her Silvery-gray eyes for the second time. A few seconds later, which felt like an eternity gazing into those twin drops of moonlight, someone (Weiss, I think) coughed. I looked up, and almost dropped her. Righting her, we both blushed, and I began to straighten my shirt. Then I remembered I didn't have one on. Embarrassed, I slid behind the opposite side of the door. I put on my shirt and re-opened it.

Pyrrah had dropped her weapons and was leaning against the wall, clutching her sides in barely suppressed laughter. Weiss had a puzzled look on her face, but her arms were still crossed. Ruby was at Pyrrah's side trying to shake her friend out of her fit, still confused at why she was laughing. Shooing Weiss and Ruby back into their room and shutting their door, Pyrrah looked at me with mirth. Still chuckling, she grabbed my wrist and said "Let's take a walk." Seeing no other option, I fell in stride behind her.

After we got a safe distance from our dorms, she surprised me with an... uncomfortable... question.

"Ok, I'm going to be blunt. You like Ruby, don't you?"

 _How the heck did she know that? I_ wondered _,_ an embarrassed blush rising, tripping over myself in surprise.

"I don't know what you're talking about..." I mumbled, grasping her outstretched arm to pull myself up. She was still laughing, but to me it seemed like the sympathetic chuckles of someone who had done this before. I looked at her face. Her eyes were partially shut, and from her mouth came some very unladylike snorts and guffaws. My shoulders sagged in defeat.

"Okay, maybe I do like her a little bit..." I groaned. "Is it that obvious?"

My groan deepened: W _hat if she picked up on it too?_ I thought, my mind already turning back to Ruby. After a couple of minutes, Pyrrah regained control over her vocals. "Yeah, it kind of is. The only reason no one else noticed it is probably because you've been in prison most of the time you've been here." she said, smiling and wiping away the tears on her cheeks.

"How could you tell?" I asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

"Well," she started, "Thursday, I saw how automatically you were smitten when you put her over your shoulder as if she weighed nothing, and later that evening, I saw the two of you curled up together." My cheeks flushed.

"Oh. You saw that." I said, flatly. "Yeah, I did, you two looked perfect together, by the way. I put the blanket around you two. Didn't want you catching cold." She continued, counting on her fingers.

"Also, Every time you're apart, you're staring wistfully into the distance. Once, I even caught you looking at her hips when she was turned away from you, but the real clincher was when I saw the two of you fight in the cafeteria. You looked and acted like your heart was broken. I was going to ask what was going on, but when Yang exploded, and you knocked her unconscious, I didn't get the chance to. After you recovered, it was all I could do to get her to watch your questioning to help clear things up." she started to continue, but I interrupted her.

"How'd you know I wasn't up to anything bad?" I asked, puzzled as to how she knew I wouldn't hurt Ruby further.

"Well, "she responded, "I am usually a good judge of character in these situations, and, until you shocked Yang in the hallways, which was provoked and in self-defense, you hadn't shown any malice. In fact, I thought that you'd be a good influence on her." I was a bit taken aback, because almost no one in my world had ever said that about me.

"Th-thanks a lot. That means a whole lot to me." I said, stepping in and giving Pyrrah a soft hug before stepping away.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a test to take!" We walked back to the dorm rooms so I could gather my team... and found them fighting in the hallway.

A large barricade had been built on one side, blocking the traffic. Lydia was nowhere to be found, but Tiffany was behind it, firing shower products and tissue at Brie, who was deflecting all the attacks with her force field while steadily advancing with two wet, knotted towels in her hands. "Come get some, honeys!" She yelled maniacally, as she twirled the whips in her hands. She reached the barricade, and was about to thwack Tiffany when all of a sudden, a stern voice yelled "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?" The voice continued, and the person descended from the hole in the ceiling

"First it was Teams RWBY and JNPR in the cafeteria", Glynda shouted, and continued "Now what is this mess from their cohorts?"

She was carrying Lydia by the waist. I glanced sideways at Pyrrah and raised an eyebrow

"What happened last time?" I asked, groaning. She blushed slightly and laughed as Glynda continued her tirade "Where is your leader?" She asked, back towards me. All three girls pointed in my direction. "Umm... Hi?" I eked out.

"What is the meaning of this?" She ground out, waving her wand around the ruined dorms, somehow causing them to repair themselves as she did an about-face and stomped towards me.

"To be honest, I don't know, Ma'am." I found my confidence, and stood to my full height- over 6 feet tall. Of course, she didn't budge, or even calm down.

"That is NO excuse. You should always know where your team is. I'm starting to regret Ozpins' choice."

"Mrs. Goodwitch, we just got here. He and I were walking back from a talk we had, and we got here seconds before you did." Pyrrah said calmly, spreading her hands to indicate the quickly disappearing mess.

"Okay then, but I'll be keeping an eye on you. I haven't forgotten about yesterday." She said, stalking off in a proud manner. I sagged in relief, thankful that my friend had stood up for me.

"Now." I started "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?"

It turns out that after I left, the three girls had continued to fight for the shower, with Brie being the victor. "Why don't you all just shower together next time?" I asked. "The shower's plenty big enough."

Tiffany and Lydia looked at me darkly, while Brie raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Pervert..." Lydia muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

"N-no, that's not what I meant..." I stuttered.

"Trust me, I don't think he means it like that." Pyrrah said, once again saving my skin. Suddenly, the intercom buzzed

" _Will Team CBLT report to the hangars at once, I repeat, Team CBLT to the hangar at Once._ "

"Come on, team." I said, eager to get this test done and over with.

As we walked down the hallways, we were escorted by teams JNPR & RWBY, who were constantly offering helpful tips. Nora was trying to tell me how to make pancakes out of forest materials, and Jaune was telling me about Grimm. Yang and Blake just walked behind, stoically. Pyrrah was telling me different landing strategies, but I'd decided to develop my own, which _should_ work, theoretically. As we reached the hangar, Ozpin was nowhere in sight. The pilot said that he was instructed to take us to a place called Beacon cliffs. As we boarded, everyone shook hands, and I gave Ruby a final hug, once more causing her to blush and pull away.

"Don't forget to bring extra ammo clips!" Ruby yelled, as the Airship ascended into the sky.

Little did I know that I wouldn't be back for a long while...

 **(_-_-_-_章終わり** **_-_-_-_)**

 **So there it is, Chapter 7. This chapter is HUGE. It took me almost a full day just to edit it to my liking. I had to redo the whole Pyrrah scene twice, due to computer issues. I hope you enjoyed it!**


	8. Chapter 8: P1: Panic

**(-_-_-_5.13.2016 Update added a few more sentences for consistency & fluidity_-_-_-)**

 **Hey You! Yeah you! thanks for reading my story 'til now. I know It's been a long and tiresome journey, but I promise things will get better.** ** _Like, Now!_**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN FANFARE_-_-_-_)**

 _ **CHAPTER 8: The Longest Day: Part 1: Panic**_

 _ **Day #03**_

 _ **June 06,2015**_

 ** _Remnant_**

Once we took off, I found that I hated heights. Last time I has fallen from a great height, it was under duress, and I had done it in the heat of the moment. This time, it was by choice, and I'd probably be in the Airship for a while. As I stumbled to my seat -the one nearest to the pilot- he must have heard my groaning, because he gave me a nausea pill.

"Helps with the bumps" he said cheerily. The flight seemed very routine, and I almost lost track of time, glancing down every once in awhile to look at the clock.

My first clue that something was wrong was when static crackled over the radio, and a panicked voice came over the loudspeaker in front of us and reverberated through the speakers set into the vehicle.

" _ABORT FLIGHT, UNIDENTIFIED HIGH SPEED AIRCRAFT SPOTTED IN AREA. LAND IMMEDIATELY AND PROCEED TO MAKE YOUR WAY BACK TO THE HANGARS ON FOOT"._

Our pilot looked confused. "That's strange," he said, as a sour taste rising in my throat for some unknown reason "I've never heard of that before."

We continued forward, cautiously, and the voice rang out again after a few minutes.

" _CEASE PROPULSION IMMEDIATELY AND LAND. NOW!"_

 _"_ Okay, Okay, I'm going! I'm going! _"_ The pilot said, switching on the mic, annoyed and a little worried.

"You guys might want to hang on tight. Buckle in, it's gonna get a little rough as we descend!"

As I observed him, he hit some switches that shut off the engines, slowing us down until we were moving with the wind. He then reached up and pulled a red lever hanging from the ceiling, causing whatever was keeping us afloat to dissipate. As we landed, he made sure everyone else had their harnesses on. Slowly, we came down in a field in the middle of nowhere. As we descended, I looked outside and saw stalks of grain stretching as far as the eye could see, growing bigger and closer by the second. When we landed, there was a long, tremendous THUMP as our airship touched down, bouncing a bit and gouging a light groove in the ground as we slid over the tall stalks flattened by the impact. Although I was pressed into my seat for a few seconds, it was over. The pilot stretched his limbs and got up.

"Another successful landing!" He said cheerily, strapping a walkie-talkie to his belt and grabbing a backpack from a hidden compartment in the hull beside him and walking with me back to the passenger bay.

"What was that all about?" I asked him, worried about Ruby and the others.

"I don't know kid, I just know I'm one heck of a pilot." He said airily, strapping on a holster and a pistol of some sort he grabbed in passing from a side rack. We reached the passenger bay, and everyone was secure. Seeing us, they unlatched their restraints and stretched their limbs. The pilot hit the switch that locked the door shut, and it fell open with a soft hiss. A warm, golden Afternoon greeted us, and we stepped out into the golden waves of wheat-like grasses. We walked away from the craft and looked around. To the Northwest, a crimson plume of smoke wafted up into the atmosphere. At that moment, we knew something was up. Four huge gray shapes materialized out of the distance flying in a diamond pattern: two at the sides and one in the front and back, knifed through the air towards us.

Suddenly, a screeching filled the air, and a sound all us Earthborn cringed at filled the air. I knew that sound, as well as that flight style. It was a typical formation used by bombers after a successful strike. My heart dropped, once again.

 _"My God"_ I whispered, barely able to get the words out. "They... bombed... Beacon".

The planes passed overhead, and I got a clear view of the blood red wolf logo emblazoned on their underbellies as they one-by-one veered off. _White Fang,_ I growled, furious. I'd seen it once before, when I was in Professor Ozpin's office. It was on a piece of paper, along with their symbol. _If I ever get the chance, I'll kill every one of them,_ I swore. Two of them slowly faded into the distance, but one continued forwards, circling the area and looking for our airship, which it had probably seen before we landed. The other one froze in midair, then crumbled into pieces like breaking glass.

"Huh? Was that a sonic boom?" Lydia said aloud.

"I thought that the four kingdoms only used Airships. I didn't know you guys had supersonic aircraft. How do you keep the wings from ripping apart?"

The pilot paled, and said in a shaky, puzzled voice "What is that? It sounds like you're talking about moving _faster_ than sound!"

We nodded. "B-but that's not possible!" He stammered. "Everyone knows we're... _years..._ away from developing that tech!"

Overcome by anger, I yelled "Yeah? Well not anymore."

This got all my teammates staring at me. Ignoring their gaze, I continued still extremely frustrated that we were sent away from the warzone, intentionally or not.

"Now help me get this thing started or I'm leaving you. _All_." I stomped back up the ramp into the gondola, team hot on my heels. Tiffany stayed outside to talk to the pilot.

"C'mon Chris, he just got informed that his enemy has superior tech and has just initiated a ferocious attack on his home he was sworn to protect. Now he can't do a thing about it!" Lydia said trying to talk some reason into me.

"Yeah, well we've gotta get _back_ as soon as possible so we _can_ help our friends out!" I said, a tear rolling down my face as I wondered who would be left and how bad the damage was. I shut the door to the cockpit behind me and sat down in the pilot's seat. Rows of dials and buttons greeted me. The window offered me a surprising 180 degree view of the surrounding area. Panic filled my mind as I vainly searched for the ignition button. I ended up slamming the keys in frustration, breaking a lever and jamming some of the buttons. Exasperated, I stood up and threw my arms up and cursed.

After a few minutes, the door hissed open behind me, and the pilot stepped into the cockpit.

"Done with your tantrum yet?" He said sadness in his eyes as he slid back into the chair and started up the blimp with ease.

"While you were having your tantrum, I was outside listening to the Transmissions. Apparently, Beacon was attacked by a squadron of high-tech fighter-bombers. Several buildings are destroyed, and there are a lot of wounded." he said, causing everyone to gasp.

"But even that's not the worst part. It appears the main target of the attack was the hangar." His voice faded out for a few seconds as the realization dawned on me: Ruby and Pyrrah might be dead!

"How did they get past the defenses?" I said, a bit of anger still lingering in my voice.

"We don't have anything but a small group of guards watching the perimeter. WE'VE NEVER BEEN ATTACKED BY _EXTREMELY_ HIGH SPEED JETS BEFORE!" he shouted in my face.

"SS-Sorry, I'm just under a lot of stress." He said, apologizing. Then I realized how foolish I'd been, rushing into the situation like that.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too..." I said anger being replaced by sadness. _You have to be strong,_ I thought to myself steeling my nerves _. For your team. For Ruby. For Pyrrah. For all those other students at Beacon._

"Worse still is that Teams JNPR & RWBY have yet to be recovered. They were last seen sending you guys off. It could be that it just hasn't been long enough for them to be dug out." He said. Noticing my rapt attention, he must have put two and two together. Switching the mic off and making sure the door was shut behind him, he leaned over in my direction.

"Got someone special on one of those teams?" he said, itching to change the conversation. Remembering my discussion with Pyrrah, I silently nodded. "Wow. That must be tough. How long have you two been together?" He asked, softly.

"We haven't." I said flatly, not wanting to talk about it.

"Oh. She doesn't know, does she?" He said, noting the clipped tone in my voice. He set the Airship on autopilot and swiveled in his chair towards me switching back to swashbuckling pilot mode.

"Who is it?" He asked, curiosity tinging his voice. "C'mon, I won't tell."

I shook my head, trying to ignore him. Sighing, he leaned back on his chair.

"My advice? When we get back to Beacon, you're gonna- and I mean _gonna-_ talk to her. Or I will." he continued.

"Why is it _soo_ important that you help me with my love life?" I yelled impatiently. "If Ruby and I are going to get closer, I have to find her first, not sit around talking... about...Oh Crap." I stopped mid-rant, face reddening- _again_ \- as I realized what I had just said, causing the pilot to grin.

"Please don't tell anyone I said that. _Please_ don't tell _her._ " I pleaded, mentally chiding myself for being so carried away.

"Hey man, I've heard about that huntress-in-training. She's one of the youngest students to ever enroll at Beacon. She's also a tough fighter, from what I can hear. Man, a girl like that is sure to be snatched up sooner or later. You need to make sure you save her. Okay, Here's how you fly this thing" He said, leaning over in my direction.

"Wait, what? Where are we going anyways?" I asked

"Where all pilots go in case of an attack- Sub Rosa Central"

After he taught me the basics of flying the ship, he sat back and mumbled a prayer. "Who ya praying for?" I asked, still trying to distract myself from negative thoughts. "My wife and kids. They're not at Beacon, but I know they're worried about me!"

"That's good," I said, "My family doesn't even know I'm here!"

"Why not? Don't your parents or guardian have to sign you up?" the pilot asked, hands crossed behind his head.

"Well, normally, you do, but my team and I had some... _special_ circumstances. I'd rather not discuss them right now, because even _we_ don't know them all!" I said, throwing some mystery into my voice.

"Alright man! I'm okay with that! The whole deal wi-" The pilot didn't even get to finish his sentence before a small hole appeared through the window, and his head snapped back.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER_-_-_-_)**

 _ **Finally Finished! Hey, you faithful readers! It took me about two days to edit this chapter, that's why I'm a little late in updating. See, usually, I spend most of the week writing, and edit it the day of it's update, but for the first few drafts, I couldn't seem to get the tone right. This chapter is meant to be a transition chapter to signal the change in the mood of the story, hence the (hopefully) serious undertones. It shouldn't get too dark, but the next chapter has a... dare I say it... fight scene, where I discover some more of my powers. It's still unknown how I figured out how to use them, so keep that in mind for future chapters.**_

 _ **R &R**_


	9. Chapter 8: P2: Hostages

**Hey guys! sorry** _ **this**_ **chapter was a little late. I was definitely working on this section the most. I hope I did well!**

 **(_-_-_-_Let's go!** **_-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 8: Part 2: HOSTAGES_**

 _ **Day #04**_

 _ **June 07,2015**_

 ** _Remnant_**

Our pilot was either killed or knocked out, but I hoped for the latter. There was no blood, but his neck could have been broken.

Suddenly, a queer voice came over the loudspeakers.

"Now that we have _that_ out the way, let the fun begin!"

 _What did he mean by that?_ I wondered. I didn't plan on finding out, anyways! Grabbing the controls I had recently _just_ learned to manipulate, I threw the plane into a shallow dive, trying to rely on gravity to speed us up. It was no use. I heard the sound of several pops followed by some hollow thuds. I felt a jolt, and our airship stopped in midair, then began rising.

"Begin boardin' procedures!" The voice cackled evilly. In the top left corner of the screen, a face appeared. It was brown, almost the color of dirt, and I could just make out reptilian scales in place of its... skin. Outside, I could hear several thumps, which I assumed were men rappelling down onto our ship. It smiled, menacingly, showing blood-red , _extremely_ sharp teeth.

"Let the fun begin!"

"Who are you?" I asked, getting up and walking back to the passenger hold, smashing the tab on the emergency locator beacon on the way. The monster's voice followed me through the speakers embedded in the walls.

"I, my boy, I am Despayre! Look, or listen, I don't care." Stepping through the iris, I grabbed the pad that the pilot had previously used and transferred the feed to it.

"Chris.." A groggy voice said softly

I stopped, dead in my tracks. _That was Pyrrah's voice_.

"They bombed Beacon, but they got our teams! Pyrrah's been heavily sedated most of the time." Another voice quickly blurted into the camera, and Despayre shifted the camera. Lined up against the wall were Pyrrah, Nora, Weiss, and Blake. Their clothes were burnt and torn, and they were tied up securely, but they looked fine-

"For the moment!" it said, interrupting my thoughts.

It nodded to someone off-screen, who came on screen and cut or removed a piece of clothing off each girl. Pyrrah's greaves, Nora's breastplate, Weiss' sleeve, and Blake's vest. "You have two minutes before the next. And so on and so forth, you get the idea!"

"You bastard! You're just using me as an excuse for your twisted fantasies. Prepare yourself!" I said, not really thinking as my brain switched to strategy mode. Looking up, we heard a heavy thud on the top of the airship followed by the clang of something locking onto the ship's hull.

Muting the pad, I turned to my team.

"Tiff, Lydia, get up there and take over whatever room they come down from." They nodded.

"Brie, get on my back and get ready for a force field!" She nodded, smiling, and walked over to me, mounting on my shoulders.

"Now's not the time for jokes, so don't even think about It."

As I said this, Despayre's goons were almost done cutting their way through the ceiling. There was a high pitched whine as a saw of some sort cut through the hull.

"And remember, switch to gun modes for now, worry about the wounded later. Lydia, you go up first after me, while Tiff provides cover fire from underneath us, then make your way to the control room, probably the most heavily guarded."

A section of the ceiling caved in, and as soon as it did, I kicked back and we shot up between the goons and into the belly of the ship, causing a few to stumble back and fall off.

"Brie, NOW!" I yelled.

While she was jumping off, a shimmering field appeared. Bullets, people, and weapons clattered against it as we ran forwards, eating up precious minutes searching the ship. Finally, we found a heavily guarded room. It was surrounded by five soldiers wearing tan, wolf-shaped masks with forked tongues : two huge, bear-type hybrids and 3 humans, all of which wielded clubs.

"Brie, cast a circular force field around them. Just trust me, and stand to the side. NOW!"

As I said it, the men and women started to get pressed together wrapped in a blue light. I ran over to them and, once I was close, I placed one foot on the sphere and one foot on the floor. Then I triggered the spring and launched them towards the black door like a huge hamster ball. Smashing through it, the field dissipated and deposited them in an unconscious heap -right at Despayre's feet.

"Impressive. Didn't think you'd do that, I thought you' kill 'em. Too bad the clock's still ticking for your little _harem_." He said in a sing-songy voice.

"Brie, meet up with the others. I got this" I said confidently

If I'd learned anything about fighting, it was not to rush into it. I switched my swords into their gun form and shot several electric Dust rounds at him, causing him to nimbly dodge them, step forward, and roundhouse kick me. This sent me rolling into the wall, which broke, causing it to explode into a myriad of light, revealing it to be a TV screen. He then proceeded to pummel me with a flurry of kicks and tail-whips. The hits didn't hurt for some reason, but they did knock the wind out of me!

Every minute on the dot, the monster would make some rude comment about what his soldiers probably happening to my teammates and my friends, making me even angrier.

Then, the thing made a mistake. Despayre grasped my hands and started to push me back against the TV. Suddenly my body stopped moving of my own accord. I jumped over its head as it launched a flurry of kicks and punches- probably to finish me off. Seeing an opening, my body back-kicked him into the screen, burying him up to his waist in it, causing it to pitch forwards, hopefully breaking his back. His feet went limp, and I ran to the door revealed by the fallen screen.

Kicking it down, I quickly shot three of the guards in the back. They collapsed forwards, revealing their pants were partially down. One of the guards had a metal shard from the door through her neck, and two were already on the floor.

I rushed to Pyrrah, who was staring into space, and taking in great breaths of air. Most of the _important_ clothing was there, but there was a faint, sharp scent in the air. Cutting her free and cradling her in my arms. She was less everything but her Chest guard, remnants of their clothing scattered around the room. Her face was heavily bruised, but I carefully checked her body for other injuries. She had a gash in the side of her head that was pouring blood

"Chris... they... h-have Jaune... and th... others." she muttered, before finally passing into unconsciousness. I didn't even want to think about what they did to her, but she obviously had it the worst. Nora was mostly fine, just a bit of caution in her voice as I cut her free as well.

"I guess everyone wanted a piece of the cereal girl." she said, somberly.

I couldn't take it anymore, and I threw up.

Pulling out my scroll, which I had received the night before, I called the rest of my team to come to me and report in 10 minutes. Wiping my face on a guard's sleeve, I went over to Weiss, who was unconscious. Whereas Pyrrah had suffered a head injury, Weiss' entire body was bruised, and she was almost fully naked. I covered her body with a sheet, feeling for a pulse. Finding it, I asked Nora for some of her clothes, as Weiss' was destroyed.

"She went Boom in both ends!" She said, after I asked her what had transpired.

"Shut the Fuck up, Nora. I'm sorry... but ...please... do!" I said, noticing just how close we had come to catastrophe. My breathing quickened, and I began to hyperventilate.

I felt a soft hand resting on my shoulder, softly stroking and humming softly. Slowly, I calmed down, my breath returning to normal, and I closed my eyes and leaned back into the massage. Suddenly, the hands withdraw sharply.

"Sorry about that... Ms. Belladonna, right? Was I getting a little too comfortable?" I asked, somehow chuckling amidst our situation.

"It's Blake, and yes, you were..."

I turned around, and, looking up, I beheld Blake for the first time since the plane message. Fortunately she had been left alone by the guards. Except for a few bruises, and a ripped outfit, she looked fine. This was probably due to her being a Faunus, as well as the fact that the guards had better things to do. After all, it's not every day you have the daughter of a massive business company at your mercy.

"They didn't get her. Apparently, Weiss had hidden countermeasures, as those two found out." she said, solemnly jerking a thumb at the guards that had already been taken care of when I got there.

"All I saw was a boom, and these guys were sans genitals. After that, one beat her up while two more attacked Pyrrah. The other had just gone to the door when you kicked it in. You got here just in time!" Her words faded out as I went back to Pyrrah, and tended to her as best as I could, cleaning her blood up with a White Fang logo I had ripped from a jacket. She was fading fast.

" _This is all my fault!"_ I mused aloud, crying into her chest, shoulders heaving. As I sat next to her, I could feel her slipping away. There was _nothing_ I could do to help , her heart stopped beating.

" _N-n-NOOOO!"_ I roared, causing the whole plane to shake. I really didn't know what to do, so I sort of just let go. Charging up my palms, I gave her a huge jolt, then started doing CPR.

"Please don't die on me now, please, please, please" I was shaking, and my voice came out as a whisper.

Finally, her breath kicked back in. I didn't notice until she opened her eyes. They were glazed over.

"P-Pyrrah?" I stuttered, not daring to hope.

" _Di-did you save the others?"_ She asked weakly, lightly grasping my hand in hers.

"Yeah, Nora, Blake, and Weiss are safe now!" She suddenly began beginning to panic "I-i can't see! I can't SEE!" she moaned. I was losing her to something, I couldn't tell what.

"Pyrrah, look at me- look! Pyrrah, heal yourself, before I make you!" I pleaded. She continued thrashing about.

"Alright, I don't know what's in there, but I plan to find out. Nora, Blake: knock me out if I can't control myself! Tell my team that too once they get here!" I looked into Pyrrah's eyes, but nothing happened. For the second time that day, it happened. I sort of lost control of my body. My body leaned down, and I blushed as I knew where this was going...

I leaned down and kissed her forehead, and instantly, I felt myself falling into a strange landscape. I didn't have time to take in the view, but it seemed like I was in a huge meadow. As I landed, a fierce battle was unfolding. An army of featureless crimson figures clashed against an army of Black creatures.

" _Quite interesting. You seem like you're advancing fast!"_ A slithering voice whispered in my ear, causing me to jump.

It was Despayre!

"I thought I killed you for sure!" I said. He laughed.

" _Boy, do you think you can fight this? I do what I want, when I want. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with_ the vault _."_

Despayre snapped his fingers twice. Instantly, his... army... surged forwards past the crimson one and into a small door.

" _Maybe I'm not_ too _old to play with new toys. Prepare yourself, Chris. You will either go mad before I'm done, or soon after! My goal is to utterly destroy you and anything you care about."_

 _"Okay, Ciao!"_ he said cheerily, disappearing into the door. I wanted to go after him, but I was suddenly the target of the crimson army, who -with no other targets- charged towards me. At the last second, I felt myself rising, like I was coming from the bottom of a pool...

"Chris... Why are you kissing me?"

 **(_-_-_-_TO BE CONTINUED** **_-_-_-_)**

 **A/N**

 **OH MY GOD! IF I LOSE INTERNET ONE MORE TIME WHILE I'M EDITING AN EMOTIONAL SCENE...**

 **Last night, I had the whole Blake situation down, and it was really turning nicely. Then, I went to save it. And my internet decides to stop working. Anyways, The final section of this chapter might be up this week as an early gift, and it might not. This is my first week of college, but my classes don't start until next week. However, I'm trying to get a big head start. Anyways, enough about me. How'd ya like the new chapter? I tried to present the Characters in a way that didn't seem weak. And If you're wondering why Pyrrah was the only one sedated, remember, she has either metal or magnetism powers...(I can't tell which). Due to the highly metallic structure of the jet, they kept her druged so she wouldn't mess with it. Also, anyone want to guess what my description of Pyrrah's mind means, as well as why Chris keeps losing control? Drop a review (as long as it's constructive), leave a comment, whatever!**

 **P.S. Next chapter introduces another Character!**


	10. Chapter 8: P3: Recovery & Discovery

**_Hey guys, FF's login was down last night, which I can only guess what happened. My guess Is that there was just too many people on._**

 **(_-_-_-_(INSERT COOL BATTLE CRY)** **_-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 8: P3: RECOVERY & DISCOVERY_**

 ** _Day #03_**

 ** _June 07, 2015_**

 ** _Remnant_**

"Pyrrah, are you okay?" I said, fearing for the worst.

"Y-yeah, I am, just a little weak and shaken. Now why were you kissing me?" She replied, trying to push herself to her feet.

"It's called CPR. Here, let me help you." I said, smiling, glad that she was okay. I knelt down and, with one hand on her back and one under her knees, lifted her up. At that moment, the broken door swung back on its hinges.

"What the hell just happened? And why are your eyes blue?" said Lydia, seeing me attempting to lift Pyrrah to her feet.

"Lydia, get me the first aid kits, and try not to let Weiss wake up!" I said, walking out.

The rest of the group had taken out the pirates with little to no injuries, and soon, once we met up, all of us were walking down the hallway. I was still carrying Pyrrah, who was asleep with one arm draped across my shoulders and her head resting on my chest. We had fashioned a stretcher for Weiss out of torn fabric, but the girls had - for obvious reasons- forced me to walk ahead. Brie walked behind us with a concerned look on her face. Tiffany and Lydia walked by her side, furtive whispers darting back and forth. Nora and Blake were also solemnly carrying Weiss, who, along with Pyrrah was dressed in scavenged White Fang armor, due to umm... Despayre, but they looked pretty cool.

The floors were surprisingly clear. I had expected them to be littered with dead, dying, or unconscious bodies, causing me to falter for a second. I asked Lydia about it.

"We knocked them unconscious, then we hog-tied them and slid them out the boarding room. They'll be fine, eventually," She said. BLT had also hog-tied the 10 or so survivors and had thrown them into the ship's brig. It was a truly massive vehicle. There was space onboard for a couple dozen guys and crew. Following the lights in the floor, we soon came to the control pods. There were two, side by side. One said " _GUNNER(S)_ and the other read _PILOT(S)._ Splitting up, Tiffany and Lydia guarded the room, whilst I, still carrying Pyrrah, took Blake to the cockpit. Brie and Nora explored the Weapons bay.

"Really? This is almost exactly like a videogame!" I yelped in wonder.

There was no viewport, but it appeared to have a retractable section just in case. Instead, there was a large group of dials, screens, and levers. These screens formed a huge viewport showing a 360° view of the plane surrounded by blue sky. We were racing above the oceans. Apparently, the ship was flying on autopilot. I looked for the controls, but all I could find something that vaguely looked like a gaming controller in a clear case. Shifting Pyrrah in my arms, I picked it up.

 _AUTOPILOT DISENGAGED! SWITCHING TO MANUAL CONTROLS._ A computerized feminine voice purred.

"Huh?" I said, half out loud.

"Chris, I think it's telling you to fly it." Blake said.

"Oh, yeah. Right. _good thing I like to play flying games._ " I muttered, grasping the controller and gently tilting a knob. The plane tilted slightly, and I experimentally pressed a toggle on the back. There was a slight whine, and we accelerated, pressing me into the seat and sending Bake tumbling head over heels. After that incident, I decided to only accelerate once we were seated and strapped in.

"So, where are we going, o' impeccable leader?" Lydia asked, impatiently.

"We're gonna catch up with the others and search them for prisoners."

I said, putting down the controller. "Look what I found!" said Nora excitedly.

"What?" I asked, eagerly.

"Computer: show us the locations of the other... Jets?" She said. A large rectangle rose up from the floor. Once it was fully elevated, the top rolled back, revealing a round object that rose further still, then detonated in an explosion of light. I jumped back, and the others looked at me funny.

"What's wrong?" they said, chuckling.

"What is that!? Why is it so dark?" I let out a _very_ unmanly scream.

"Chris, open your eyes." I heard Pyrrah say.

"Oh. Right" I said, opening my eyes. In front of me was a massive topographical map of Remnant. In the corner of it was a compass and a legend pointing out that the Four triangles were the four jets, Farther back, there was a greyed-out bullseye, which I assumed to be Beacon, their target. Other than that, I couldn't understand it.

"Get me a prisoner!" I said, laying Pyrrah down and strapping her into a chair. Silently, Nora left out, returning a few minutes later dragging an extremely short person that I recognized from earlier. The girl was struggling and sobbing.

"Please don't hurt me! I'm only a kid!" she wailed.

I asked her where the planes were heading and which one had the others on it.

"I don't know! Roman didn't tell us regular blokes anything! All we did was load up the unconscious kids, then Roman took one girl-a wee one, I think, who was wearing almost all black, and left in his personal jet." She spat out rapid-fire.

"Thanks a _whole_ lot. What's your name, miss? And why did you join the White Fang? How old are you?" I asked in rapid succession.

She stopped crying, but her breathing quickened.

In a stunning display of kindness (well, to me at least), Lydia came over, and hugged the girl. "We're not going to hurt you, and we never were going to in the first place." The girl's eyes opened wide.

"Y-you mean, I'm safe!? Oh joy! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She exclaimed, jumping up and down and hugging all of us.

"My name is Sue, but me friends call me Seraph!" She said, removing her White Fang mask, revealing a pale-colored youthful face with silvery hair that cascaded down to reach her waist. She had bright gold eyes that fairly burst with energy, and, throwing off her armor, was outfitted with a long, flowing dress the color of silver with a large amount of skin exposed in a v on the back. She had a small emblem that was a golden star with a pair of silvery wings crossing over it. What was really odd though, was the white backpack she wore. It was moving, almost as if there was something inside of it.

"Weiss?" Pyrrah moaned from her seat, waking up at the sight.

"Who's that bloke? I just told you me name is Seraph. Seraph Schnee." She said, sounding confused.

My jaw dropped. "Seraph, do you have any siblings?" I asked,

"No, not that I know of, it's just been me all the 10 years of me life." She said, nonchalantly. "Er, well it _was, '_ til I joined up with these fellows! After that, well, the 'Fang let me do what I was best at: thievery. All I had to do was bring them all the dust and Blueprints I could pinch, and they'd let me choose my dress and my freedom." She said, as if this was an easy task.

"Then how'd you end up here?" said Lydia, frowning.

"Well, once I stole a bunch of the stuff, I was riding it down a hill, when it exploded." Lydia put her hands to her mouth, frowning even harder.

"Fortunately, I was shielded by the blast mostly, but Roman went bloomin' mad at me for losing the stuff. He stripped me of my title, my stuff, and my freedom. I lived as his personal toy for months!" She said, shuddering and hugging herself tight. All the girls except Blake ran to her, surrounding her with hugs and tears and kisses. I didn't hear the rest of the story, what with the blubbering that was going on, so I walked over to Pyrrah, leaving the girls to their devices.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her, softly touching her shoulder. "I'm Feeling fine." She croaked. "What happened? How'd we get here?" She asked, sitting up and noticing her surroundings.

"When Team CBLT left for the test, the White Fang bombed Beacon with four Jets. It appears they were working for Despayre, and, in the confusion, kidnapped teams RWBY and JNPR." I said

"Who's Despayre?" She interrupted.

"Well, he appears to be some sort of Reptilian-Human Hybrid with Mind Powers. He attacked us, as well. I killed him, but during our fight, he had sent his men to... torture... the four of you, trying to drive me mad I guess. Once I killed him, I stormed in and defeated the guys who were hurting you all. When we rescued you, you sank into unconsciousness, then, a few minutes later, you awoke, screaming and claimed that you were blind. I... uh, went into your mind, and saw you fighting Despayre, who turned to me and disappeared. After that, you threw me out of your mind and now we're here. You slept through most of the journey, but we're in pursuit of the other two jets, one of which carries Yang, Jaune, and Ren, and the other that has Roman and Ruby on it."

"How'd he get out? What happened to the fourth one?" she asked.

"When we first saw them, one of the jets seemingly broke apart in midair, like a sheet of glass." Her eyes narrowed, pensively "That is not good. That likely means Neo is onboard!" "Who's Neo?" I asked, Puzzled. "She is, in a way, Roman's personal transport. She can teleport, but we don't know how far she can go. A telltale sign is exactly what you described!"

"Oh, in that case, let's get to work on Weiss. I'm going to try something tough. I don't want her remembering what happened earlier." I said. Pyrrah shuddered, remembering how she felt. "I gotta warn you, though. This is dangerous stuff I'm dealing with. Who knows how her mind works. It could be an open book or a steel trap." I mused aloud, walking over to her shrouded form, removing the fabric, revealing her sleeping face as well as her small, but compact frame.

I tried not to let my eyes linger on her chest, but she was surprisingly well muscled, with a six pack and wiry, but strong arms. Since we found her, the girls had given her a quick sponge bath from water in the galley, which cleared almost all the blood away, uncovering only a few cuts, but lots of bruising. She now had a matching scar over her left eye, courtesy of the damn guards.

"Before I dive in," I said, turning back to Pyrrah. "I want you to know that over the past few days, you've become a great friend, and I'm glad I got to know you!" I said, kneeling down, preparing to dive in, and knowing I'd probably never get used to it.

"Chris, what are you doing? And why is it so cold?" Weiss said weakly. _Uh oh,_ I thought, _she's not supposed to be awake_ _yet_.

"W-Weiss? WEISS!?" Blake came bounding back into the room, firmly but gently enveloping her in a hug.

"Oh my goodness Weiss, we didn't think you'd make it!" She said, tears running down her face as she sat Weiss up.

Weiss inhaled sharply as Blake's hands touched her back, then said.

"What do you mean 'make it'? I'm fine, except- Oh no! Why am I naked? Stop staring at me, pervert!" She said, looking at me, covering up her pale, slim chest as best she could with the sheet.

"Ugh... I don't feel very well..." she said, laying back down. Pyrrah, now fully recovered, unbuckled herself and started massaging the shorter girl's stomach, tilting her head on my direction, politely indicating for me to leave.

"I'm going, I'm going! It's not like there's much to see anyways. BECAUSE I SAW IT ALREADY, REMEMBER?" I added, after all three girls shot me a glare, even Pyrrah.

"I'll be in the cockpit. Join me when you're... dressed. Is it okay if I send the other girls back?" I asked, cramming the thoughts together as I awkwardly climbed down the portal separating the upper levels of the plane from the cargo bay. Several boxes were haphazardly strewn about. I opened them, and they were filled with weapons. Pyrrah's shield and sword; Gambol shroud; Manghild; and a rapier with what looked like an old-fashioned six shooter embedded in the grip.

"Ooh!" I picked it up, pointed it at the ground... and accidentally activated it. A red symbol appeared in the air, floating in front of me.

 _What's this?_ I thought, reaching forwards to touch it. Bad Idea.

"Gahh!?" I yelled as it shot me across the room, throwing me against the wall. "Unh... what the heck was that?" I moaned.

"Chris, are you okay?" Pyrrah said, looking down at me from the ladder. "What happened?" She asked, sliding down and standing over me.

"Stupid frog-sticker launched me across the room!" I said, pointing to the offending weapon, which was now stuck into the floor.

"Oh, you mean Myrtenaster?" she said breaking into a fit of laughter. "Yeah, you _might_ not wanna mess with that..."

"Ohh so _now_ you tell me!" I said, peeling myself from the wall.

"Help me gather this stuff up!" I said.

Suddenly, the weapons began to float, hovering in place. Then Pyrrah summoned her weapons to her, and I grabbed the hammer and put it back into its case, repeating the same process with Myrtenaster as I placed both boxes over my shoulders.

"What was that?" I asked as we climbed up the ladder.

"Oh, that's my semblance. I can adjust the polarity of metals, causing them to float, come to me, or anything. What's your semblance?" She said.

"I honestly don't know! At first, I thought It was electric powers, but then, it got mental. I was _in your mind,_ Pyrrah. In. Your. Mind. How is that possible?" I said, causing her to pale for a brief second.

"What did you see?" she asked, regaining her composure after only a millisecond.

"Well, your mind was, well, like a meadow during an autumn day. It was... beautiful. There was not a speck of disorder. Well, at least not till you fought Despayre. He broke through your defenses enough to access a doorway."

"Hmmm... _wait_. So he's still in there?" she said.

"Now, Pyrrah, I never said he-" I started to say, but she cut me off.

" _Is. He. Still. In. My. Brain?_ " She ground out. I'd never seen her this mad before.

"I Don't know. It could be a trap he left for me in your mind. I'm only a few minutes more knowledgeable than you, Pyrrah, and I did everything in my power to stop him. If he wanted us killed, We'd be dead by now." I said.

"How do you know this." She said, a little bit of the tension in her voice dying down.

"Because He told me so. When I was in your head." I decided to leave out what he _actually_ said.

By this time, we were almost back at the cockpit, and we were just in time to see the girls preparing dinner in the tiny galley on screen

"It's been a long day!" I said, yawning and checking the controls. I noticed that the sun had started to go down. _Tomorrow, Ruby, we're coming to get you!_ I said.

"Now, here's how we're gonna save the others!" I had drawn out a complex, if painful way to assault and board the nearest Jet, which was flying at a leisurely pace, unknowingly being followed. As I explained the plan, the girls gathered 'round to hear it.

After I explained my plan, which was ludicrous at best, suicidal at worst, I asked them what they thought.

"Well, we should be able to combine our powers, but I don't know how much of a strain it'll put on Weiss."

"Okay, thanks. Also, are you okay with the-"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I know that you're already focused on something else. One thing, though, don't get _too_ comfortable back there, I've still got my own pursuit." She said, smiling wistfully.

"Oh, you mean you and Jaune are just friends?" I said, surprised.

"Yeah, after that night at the dance, we've gotten closer as partners, but we're not getting past that." She said sadly.

"Oh yeah, I know how that feels. Where I come from, we have a term for that- Friend zoned. I often feel that way." I said, compassionately.

"Huh? I'm sorry, but I _don't_ see you that way..." Pyrrah said, taking two steps backwards, causing the others to cautiously laugh.

"Hah, I wasn't talking about _you_ , Pyrrah, you're like a sister to me!" I said, laughing nervously.

"Anyways, Windbla- er, Weiss, can you do what I asked?" I said, hoping she could.

"Yes, but it'll require a whole lot of energy to do, so I won't be doing much afterwards for a while. I can still defend the ship, though." She replied, cocking an eyebrow.

"Cool. You might as well finish dinner and get some rest. Those bruises will take a while to heal."

"Brie, how long are those grappling wires they used to board us? Oh, crap!" I shouted that last part, grabbing my head.

"What?" They said in unison "I-we forgot about our pilot! He's still being towed under us! I hope he's okay..."

"Somebody mention a pilot?" The doors parted, and, lo and behold, our pilot walked in, rubbing his temples.

I opened my mouth to call his name, but I realized I had never learnt it. "You're okay!" Team CBLT yelled in unison, as the girls rushed to hug him. I -ever the calm-headed one- walked over and shook his hand.

"Man, we thought you were dead. We would have gotten to you sooner, but we had to do some housecleaning." I exclaimed, spreading my arms to indicate the messy ship.

"Don't sweat it man, I'm fine. Just a slight headache." He said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and walking me back through the door.

"Soo... any information on Ruby's whereabouts?" He asked.

"Not really, but we have a solid lead on the other three missing team members! We're going after them tomorrow!" I said.

"I know it's _right_ after your injury, but can you fly the plane for a bit?" I asked him, as we returned to the group.

"Sure, why not?"

"We've got to get ready. Can anyone with experience rig up those weapons and explosives that I mentioned? I'll need one grapple gun beacon. It'll be disposed of once Pyrrah and I land. Make as many of the explosives as you can out of the bombs in the basement"

"Ohoho, me!" Nora yelled.

"Also, two things. One: Blake, can Gambol shroud handle my weight?"

"Yeah, it can. I'm sure of it."

"And two, guys, remember, we could find anything on that ship. Be. Prepared! Meeting adjourned!" I dismissed them all to the barracks to go to sleep.

 ** _SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS (can be skipped)_**

I watched them walk out, then followed behind.

"Seraph, you coming?" I asked, noticing her standing there, alone.

"Y-yeah, I am, I'm just thinking about what Roman'll do to me if he catches me with you lot..." she said, trembling slightly.

"It's okay. All the others will be here to protect you!" I said, trying to calm her nerves.

"C-can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Well, I don't think the beds are big enough for that, but would you like me to sleep at the bottom of your bed?" I said, a little of my protective older brother side coming out.

"Y-yeah, that'd be just peachy!" she said, walking out with me down to the quarters.

Dropping into my bed, which was more like a laid out sleeping bag, my exhausted body fell asleep almost instantly. For the first time, I was grateful that I didn't have time to dream.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **So that's it. Hope you all enjoy the next chapter. It took me a little while to put this chapter together, as I wanted to be sure I wouldn't have to come back and edit it later. These chapters were pre-written (by me, guys, don't worry!) but now I'm coming into the fun part of the story: actually _writing and_ editing. I hope this doesn't decrease your like of the story, but I'm doing my best. Also, I hope you like the ship, because you'll be seeing a lot of it. It's going to become the main headquarters of team CBLT (or EARTHFORCE, as Brie calls it behind my back). Do you all have any suggestions as to the title of the ship? Post them in the comments, or PM me! Also, Sue is _not_ closely related to Weiss, but she's part of a small offshoot whose ancestors actually married faunas. Good Night!**


	11. Break Chapter

**_Hey guys! Sorry, but there'll be no chapter this week. I'm a bit behind in some of my college classes, so, instead of writing my story I need to work on writing my English papers. In the meantime, here's a little bit of information on Despayre that I either left out or couldn't fit into my story!_**

 ** _Also, before my story begins, Roman was captured, but he was broken out of prison by Despayre and Neo during the bombing of Beacon._**

Known facts about: Despayre

Alliances: Roman Torchwick, The White Fang

Friends: None

Associates: None (known)

Strength: 10/10

Cunning: 9/10

Semblance: Mind manipulation (unverified)

Manipulation:11/10

Aura: 8/10

Home: Unknown

Species: Lizard-Faunus

Other Info: Despayre is _not_ in league with Cinder Fall and the rest of the crew, but he needs Neo for his plans, so he works with Roman. It also is a good way to secretly test his weapons. He's a former bank robber; that's how he met Roman. He is using Roman's resources (behind his back) to distract the Atlesian Military as well as Beacon from _his_ machinations. His group represents the people even Faunus won't respect- the... well, let's just call them _Faunomalies_. They're mercenaries that operate offshore, thus evading the sweeps by the government.


	12. Chapter 9: Calm before the Storm

_**Thanks you followers! Its actually surprised me as to how many views this story's got. Here's chapter 9. I know a lot of you guys are like "finally, He's going to go back to a chapter being one cycle." Well, not exactly. See, it all depends on the length of the chapter. If you want me to, I can upload the longer days in larger chunks. However, I've noticed that when I'm reading a story with long chapters, I get a little bored. I'm also thinking about re-doing the older chapters and adding a header to indicate the date and World.**_

 _ **One more bit of News: I'm changing Sue's first name to Seraph. It seemed kind of generic when I read it aloud, and i simply think Seraph fits better.**_

 **(_-_-_-BEGIN CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Day #04**

 **June 07, 2015**

 **Earth**

I awoke to a trio of emergency personnel shining a light into my eyes. They were talking about me. I sat up, but I was strapped down securely in a hospital gurney. Again. This time, though, it was already in the afternoon. "He's awake!" the doctor exclaimed. "Huh? What do you mean? Of course I'm awake!" I said, wondering how all these doctors got into my room.

"Chris, you've been asleep for almost 24 hours!" my mom said, looking at me. "We thought you had somehow slipped into a coma!" She said, waiting for the doctors to disconnect their equipment before wrapping her arms around me.

"We need to get you to a sleep study!" She said, once the doctors had packed up their equipment and left. "I'm going right now to phone the Center." she said, referring to the Sleep Apnea Center near our house. "Call me if you need anything!" She said, breathing a sigh of relief as she walked through the doorway.

I sat up, realizing I was lying on the ground outside. I laid back down, watching the clouds go by and finally letting my thoughts wander. I also decided to really think about what had happened yesterday (last night, whatever!). I replayed the events over and over in my mind: Catching Ruby as she slipped, Pyrrah discovering my crush, and subsequently encountering the shower fight; The short trip to the Airship, the look on Ruby's face as I ascended, the subsequent bombings a few hours later, getting mad and attempting to fly the airship; Getting attacked by Despayre, somehow defeating him, rescuing the others, meeting Seraph, and plotting to rescue the rest of Teams RWBY & JNPR, and finding out our pilot was still alive. Good memories mixed with bad ones, and soon, the tears began to flow. Slowly at first, then increasing until I ran dry. I slammed my fist into the ground, creating a tiny, almost imperceptible crater in the grass. As I watched it, it slowly but steadily rose back up, a testament to its resilience. I got up and decided to do something to alleviate my madness, so I decided to get in contact with Lydia. She'd never given me her number, so I had to call her brother. Pulling out my phone, I gave her a call. "Hello?" her brother answered.

"Hey, This is Chris."

"Oh. _Hey Chris_." He sounded angry

"I _need_ to talk to Lydia, is she there?"

"Umm, yeah, she is. I'll put her on the phone." he said, puzzlement riddling his voice as he stepped away from the phone. "LYDIA!" I heard him yell "Chris wants to talk to you!"

A few seconds later, I heard movement on the other end of the line. "Yeah?" she responded, slightly annoyed as usual.

"Have you been... ummm... having... uh... strange dreams lately?"

-Long pause-

"... Why?" She asked quizzically.

"I've been having _strange_ dreams as well." I replied

"Okay? Just because we've both been having weird dreams doesn't mean they're the same one, Chris." She replied speedily. _Crap,_ I thought. She's got me there.

"Why don't you say your dream, and then I'll tell you parts of mines." I said.

"I'm not dumb, Chris. You could just, like, make up some stuff about mines." She replied, annoyance clear in her voice.

"Okay, then how about we switch. I tell you parts of my dream, and you confirm for me."

"I don't know why I'm doing this, but _okay._ " She replied, sounding flustered. _Hah, good to see I haven't lost my charms._ I said to myself.

"Last week, I dreamt of another world-"

"Okay, Chris, spill the beans. This is going to take you hours at this rate."

"Anyways, long story short, currently, you, Brie, Tiffany and I are in a Jet on an intercept course for the remaining members of Teams JNPR and RWBY." I said, smartly skipping most of what had happened there to me.

"Okay, so we _might_ be having the same dream..." She conceded. I swear she was nodding her head on the other end.

"Do you _really_ think my plan will work?" Lydia had always been the voice of reason in my life. Though she _could_ be really annoying at times, she was often right about things.

"Well, as said earlier, it should work, but what if someone gets hurt?"

"Well, my mon always wanted me to plan dive into my problems!"

"I am 100% sure that's not what she meant, Chris. I'm serious! How would I live with that? How would your other friends get over it? Just because you're dead doesn't mean I can get over it. You mean a lot to me, even if I don't act like it."

""…Yeah, same here. Y'know, I wouldn't even have met you if it weren't for your brother. I'm sorry I've been acting like an ass for the past few years." I said. "Listen, did your mom call in the EMT's while you were sleep?" I decided to change the subject

"No, she didn't, but my brother tried _really_ hard to reach you!"

"Well that would explain why he sounded _really_ mad at me. I hope he doesn't hate me, but I can't exactly tell him where I was now, can I?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you could… come over… and talk…."

"Why? Not that I'm turning you down or anything."

"Umm… Because I'd rather not—Actually, Let's meet at the grocery store." She said. I assumed she was referring to the one nearest her, but I conceded.

"Okay, fine…. See you in a half an hour. Bring your brother."

"Why? It's just up the street."

"Uh, maybe for you! It'll take me a while to get there, because it's literally _all_ uphill!"

"Ah, true..." She agreed.

"Oh yeah, and can you bring some paper and pens?" I asked.

"Okay, I'll see you there."

-Forty minutes later-

"Whew, _that_ , was a chore." I rasped out, as I stopped in front of the store _. I need to get in better shape!_ I thought to myself.

I spotted the two of them instantly, walking over to them after locking up my bike. I had brought along my backpack, as well as some snacks, which we distributed between ourselves on the hill facing the stores. As promised, Lydia had brought along the paper.

"So you're, _what,_ a couple now?" her brother prodded.

"Well, not exa-" I started to joke.

" _NO_ ** _,_** we're not ** _._** _Really_ _?"_ She spat out. She angrily speared a piece of cheese and started to put it to her mouth, but I swooped in and ate it, causing her to almost smack me.

"Chris! NOT Helping!" She said sternly.

Lying back, I stared up at the sky.

"Ah, these are the good ol' days!" I said, randomly, causing them both to laugh.

"What do you mean?" he asked

"Just the three of us, you and I talking, and me messing around with Lydia."

"Ha ha, very funny Chris." Lydia said flatly.

"Honestly, is that all you dragged me here for? To third wheel?"

"You were never our third wheel, man. There was never an 'us'. Lydia and I just wanted to talk to you about something." I said.

As we explained our adventures, he was actually quite receptive. He didn't accuse us of lying or anything.

He said I was lucky to be team leader of a group of girls.

"Whew, it's not as good as you think. For one, I have one of those teammates trying to seduce me. In creepy ways. Also, your sister's part of it, too!"

"Yeah, but you've got no chance with her, so I don't have to worry about that." he said, causing (for the first time I ever saw) Lydia to blush.

"You know what, bro!" She sputtered out.

I spat out my water, causing me to choke. All three of us started laughing, hard.

 _This is smart, trying keep your mind off of Ruby and the others._ The thought popped up without warning, and I stopped laughing.

"What's wrong?" they asked.

"Nothing. I was just thinking of how the other captured teammates are doing."

 ** _More like, what's being done to them, hehehe._** Another thought, this time, even more foreign.

"Alright. That's not funny!" I said aloud, causing my friends to look at me.

"Chris, you okay?"

 ** _I'll be borrowing your mind for a moment._** The thought was definitely not mines.

 ** _That's right! It's your little ol' buddy, Despyare. Well, not me, just a_** **gift** ** _I implanted in your brain while we fought. I like to call it the_** **seed of doubt.** ** _Get it?_**

 _What do you want?_ I thought.

 ** _Nothing more than to watch you fail, that's all. You know, I'm probably having my way with one or two of your friends now, you know? Let's watch!_**

 _No!_ I thought, knowing _exactly_ what he meant. My parents always said I had a fertile imagination.

 ** _Yep, you guessed it! We're going on a trip into your darkest thoughts, you know, the ones you try to hide? I assume I broke through Pyrrah's mind just as easily, but then again, she might not be someone like you, but her mind's super focused, like a chess player who's about to…. But I digress!_**

An Idea popped into my head _Wait. This is my mind! You can't run it like some damn chalkboard! I'm in control here, or, at least, I think I am. Anyways, before you hit play on that thought, do the chicken dance!_

 ** _Huh? Why? No, stop that! Not cool man!_** He said, but he was already starting to flap his arms.

 _I can have a little fun with this!_ I chuckled, realizing he had only the power I gave him,

 _Now, before I kill you, or delete you, or whatever, tell me Despayre's plan!_ I said, now enjoying my discovery.

 ** _Okay, it's to control the world through fear, madness, and, of course, despair!_**

 _Huh? That seem_ really _cliché._ I thought.

 ** _What do you expect? I'm only a figment of your imagination combined with a bit of Despayre's craziness. And your weird fanny pack. I don't know their plans, I was just telling you what you wanted to hear._**

 _Hey. It's not a fanny pack! It's a… well, in any case, I'm done with you for now. You can go, but don't get too far. And no more trying to watch my… odd… memories. I'm taking away your powers. Look, but don't touch. And definitely, don't try to interrupt me again. Also, you're now my slave, and I'm changing your mission. Instead of attacking me, you're going to go through all my memories and spew out random factoids that are interesting. You'll know 'em when you find 'em. Bye!_ I said, mentally and physically snapping my fingers. Unexpectedly, this brought me back to reality which had apparently continued.

 ** _Well, duh. Your mind was distracted, but not the world, pretty-boy!_**

"Chris?" Lydia was waving her hand in front of my face. She was bent over, sheepishly looking into my eyes.

"Huh?" I said, blandly, leaning forwards from a brief lack of sense, causing her to stagger back and slap me, softly.

"What's up with you lately? You've been acting _really_ weird. And I mean weird _er_ than normal. Are you okay? My brother went to ask for a cup of water. We think you might have heatstroke from overexertion."

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little tired…" I said

"Cut the crap, Chris."

 ** _Alliteration, niiice!_**

 _She wouldn't understand, anyways._

"I'm just going through some trouble after all this change. I mean, last week, I didn't even know what I was going to do with my life. Now, I have to pick. Either I stay attached to the real world, or I fall in love with the other one."

"Chris, it's not even like that. We're getting to do something no one else has, and you're complaining? I don't know about you, but I'm choosing both. Sure it'll be a little harder to focus, but in the long run, both world have great things to offer."

"Like what? This world, I can't even get a decent sandwich without busting the bank. In Remnant, all the meals are free!"

"That's really greedy, Chris. How poor are you?"

"Not very, but I like to keep my options open… it was just an example!" I said sheepishly

"Not a really good one! You've been living as a student at Beacon, and only for a couple of days. One of which you spent in the hospital, one of which you spent in jail. The only meal you had was dinner last night- plundered, I might add- from a stolen vehicle. You need to stop complaining, and start doing. Also, stop with the creepy acting like my boyfriend stuff. It's really uncomfortable. This isn't the teammate I signed up under." She said, standing up and sighing. Brushing the dirt off her pants, she walked away. "Call me when you want to talk." She said over her shoulder.

"See you tonight?" I called out as she reached the far end of the street. She ignored me.

 ** _Ooh, buurn!_** Despayre jeered, causing me to contemplate deleting him.

A few seconds later, her brother came back with a cup of ice-cold water.

"Where's Lydia going?" He asked.

"Probably back to your house. She didn't seem too happy." I said, guzzling down my ice water.

"Why? What'd you do this time?"

"I don't know, really…"

 ** _Yeah you do, man!_**

"Sorry man, I've gotta go. See you later!" I said unlocking my bike and pedaling off before he could say anything else.

I enjoyed the ride home, shorter because of the huge hills that previously were a chore did nothing but sped me up. For almost a full 20 minutes, my only worry was watching out for cars coming down the road. Feeling the wind ripping through my hair, I sped off, sighing contentedly as I spoke with the Despayre-thing.

 _So, do you have any memory of Despayre?_

 ** _Yes and no. I was given his personality, but I have none of his memories. Kinda like looking at a yearbook: you can see lots of people, but you don't know what they've done._**

 _Oh, I see...If I gave you some-_

 ** _Yeah, I can match faces to names. Like Teams RWBY, JNPR, and you, Lydia, and another pair. Oh, thanks -Brie and Tiffany. Ha, CBLT? Has a nice ring to it! I like it._**

 _Okay, thanks. Can you tell me where Despayre was headed?_

 ** _No, but I know it was on the ocean._**

 _Huh? Now that I think about it, the one map I saw showed a lot of water. I wonder why? Okay, Hope, you can go now._

 ** _Hope? Really? Totalllllyyyy uncooooolll..._**

We had arrived at my - ** _Our-_** house, and I stowed my bike and laid on my bed. It was 1:30, waaay too early for anyone but Nora to be awake. I thought I'd just pop into Remnant to check up on everyone. This time, I found it hard to go to sleep...

 **(_-_-_-END CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**


	13. Chapter 10: Judge, JRY, Executioner

**_Heyo! I'm_ really _sorry about not updating in a while, It's just that college applications are due in a month, so its been a challenge to fit this into my schedule. The only reason I had time now was because I couldn't get to sleep. The good news is, in less than 2 hours I'll be on a bus headed to NYC for Comic-Con! Yay! Enjoy!_**

 ** _CHAPTER 10: Judge, JRY, executioner_**

 ** _I can't even lie, the chapter title has nothing to do with the events this time, It just sounded so cool!_**

 **(_-_-_-BEGIN CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Day #04**

 **June 07, 2015**

 **Remnant**

Once I awoke, I realized that I was in dire need of a restroom break. Going by the kitchen, I thought I heard a voice.

 _Who would be awake at this hour?_ I wondered. Peering through the door, which had a six inch porthole set in it, I saw a White fang member facing me talking to a young girl. The lights were on low, so I couldn't make out their face.

 _What? But we cleaned all of them out! We dropped them all over a field_ I thought, forcing myself to stay quiet as I debated whether or not to open the door or go wake the teams.

Taking a breath, I snuck around to the other side, taking a detour through the spice pantry. Coming around the other side, I slid the door open and snuck up behind the soldier. Grabbing a long knife from the rack, I quietly tiptoed behind it. Lashing out, I reached down and grasped the soldier's head with one hand, placing the knife to their throat with the other. Surprisingly, the soldier -who wasn't as inexperienced as I thought- flipped me overhead and onto the table, at the same time pulling down the hood. Looking up, my eyes locked with amber ones. It was Blake.

"Oops... Sorry. With that uniform, I thought you were one of the pirates we had overlooked." I said, rubbing my tailbone where it had hit the table.

"It's fine, I guess... Just don't do it again." she said in her usual, unexpressive tone.

"I never thought I'd wear this uniform again," She said, almost to herself, looking away before continuing "but it'll help with getting past the guards tomorrow."

"Again? Were you once a White fang member?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Why? Why would you help those... those terrorists?" I said in disbelief.

She said nothing.

"What do those cowards even fight for?" I questioned.

"You wouldn't know! Not at all." she spat.

"Try me." I said, smirking with a devilish grin.

"Well, _I'm_ leaving. Nice convo, Blake!" Sue said before exiting the room.

"Anyways, originally, the White Fang fought for species equality through nonviolent protests. Then they sort of gave up peaceful protesting. That's when I left them."

"What do you mean 'species equality'? Making monkies equal to humans is that important?" I said, puzzled.

"What, you don't think Faunas are equal to humans?" She snarled, eyes narrowing like a cat's. Somehow, the bow on top of her head was pressed back.

"What's so great about a fawn ass? Is that some kind of delicacy?" I asked, confused.

In a second, I was tied upside down to the ceiling.

Images of people with animalistic features, but otherwise normal-looking flooded through my brain.

 _ **I think you're talking to one, dumbass. FaunAs, not FaunaS.**_

 _Oh. shit. You couldn't have told me that before?_ I mused to myself, quickly following it up with "Sorry, Blake. I get it now, you're a faunus, aren't you? That's why you were once a part of the group."

"Yes, I am."

"So where are your... umm... parts?" I asked, choosing my words carefully.

Silently, she undid her bow, revealing two, triangular black ears.

"Oh my goodness! Can I to-"

"Normally, I would say no. But I know you're not going to stop asking. So once, and once only. If you tell anyone, or if you pull out the kitty litter, I swear by all that is Holy that I will throw you from this plane." She growled.

I tentatively reached out and rubbed her head the way I had seen Weiss do it earlier, causing her to purr for a second before she caught herself.

"Okay, okay, I'm done. Now, back to the serious conversation."

"Yes, lets."She said, blushing and re-tying her bow."I'm sure you don't have to go through anything like _that_ back on Earth."

"Not anymore, but that was only recently changed. Like, in the last 60 years or so. My grandparents still tell me stories from back then, when people like me couldn't eat with people like you all." I said, only able to guess at how that felt.

"What do you mean, 'people like you'? Are faunas in control in you world?"

"No, we don't have anything as... _exotic..._ as you in our world. What separated us was skin color. That is, until the Civil Rights movement."

"You mean out of all the stupid things, your world didn't tolerate skin colors? That's idiotic!" she stated, matter-of-factly.

"Just like the White Fang and Faunas equality right? Blake, you just described over 300 years of my world's history. Ours are more alike than you know. You know how the White Fang weaponized your rights movement? Well, we had a group do the same thing. Guess the name? Black Panthers. Nothing more than thugs, if you ask me, though they had a just cause. It was only through peaceful protests that my 'kind' even got rights." I shot back.

"Hmm... White Fang, Black Panthers. They do sound similar." She admitted.

"That bring me to another question. During the previous century, we had two huge wars in which most nations in the world fought. Did Remnant have any events like that?"

"Well, we had at least one, but I don't know much about it, though. When we get back to Beacon, you should research that topic at a library."

"Huh, I'll put that on my to-do list behind Not die. I asked that question because if somehow our worlds met, it wouldn't be pretty."

"What do you mean? You're fine. A little silly, but that's not that bad. Anyways, when you came here, Pyrrah said you didn't know what a semblance is, or even what dust or Aura is. How can a world without those defeat us?" She said.

"Actually, we have a different resource to supplement all of those. For lightning Dust, we have electricity. It's only found here as lightning, but we harness it and use it to power most of our devices. For Fire Dust, we use gasoline, which powers our vehicles and tools. and so on and so forth. But we wouldn't need to be as advanced as you are, nor do we need a semblance or aura to take you on."

 _As long as you stay far enough away, at least..._ I thought.

"Ookay? That still doesn't mean you could beat us in a war. We have much more better tech than you. When your weapon transformed, Ruby said you almost shit your pants." She stated.

"Well, our branch- er- _version_ of humanity has basically been either at war or on standby for the last 2000+ years. Over the course of time, we've sort of gotten used to it, and the nation I live in- America- is almost always a part of it, albeit usually the good side. Fortunately, we're the size of a friggin continent, and we always take the fight elsewhere, enabling most citizens to live a normal life, kind of like Vale. There's always this uneasy 'peace' that is only defended by the brave soldiers- or as you call them, Hunters  & Huntresses."

"Ah, I see... that's why you reacted strangely to the technology. Surely, if your world has it, there is little to no need for civilians like you to use it. That still doesn't explan your claim."

"Honestly, I'm pretty sure it does... See, we have these things we like to call WMD's. We don't use them, much, but they're pretty powerful."

"What does WMD stand for?" She asked

"Before I answer, you have to promise never to bring this up outside of this conversation."

She nodded.

"Okay. It stands for Weapon of Mass Destruction. They level entire cities in the blink of an eye, and poison the ground for miles. We don't use them unless we are significantly provoked, but we have hundreds in our arsenal, as does four of five other nations. Not all of which are sane, I might add. If someone came from earth who knew how to build them... It would be chaos. You wanna know why I told you that? Because I saw someone building one yesterday." She was stunned.

"What? How?" She said suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

" Well, yesterday, at some point in time, Despayre got into my mind and left some sort of minion, whom I easily defeated and subjugated. Even though he's in my mind, he somehow has his own personality and memories -some of Despayre's actually. I went through his memories a bit, and I came across one that, well, looked strange. It was a missile, suspended in between two rails. It was mostly complete, but it still needed a mobile mount. However, it shouldn't be much if a problem, because there's nothing big enough to mount that thing on." I explained.

"What's so destructive about that? I mean, is it a catapult of some sort?" Blake said, still confused.

"Yes and no. It looked like a railgun. A railgun is a weapon that fires extremely long range rounds, kind of like a gun vs a sniper rifle, scaled up to fire huge bullets. However, a railgun can have a range of more than a hundred miles, as well as the ability to use High explosive Rounds."

"Okay? Now that I think about it, a few years ago, when I was with the White fang, there was talk about a massive weapon being built, though there was a significant point that the scientists couldn't get past. Over the last year, Roman stole literal tons of Dust crystals. We thought he used them to blow open some caves and flood the City with Grimm, but now that you mention it, he couldn't have used all that Dust. The explosions were too small... He must've used that as a diversion. We have to warn Beacon, and all the kingdoms!" She exclaimed.

"First, we rescue the others. Then we destroy or neutralize the railgun project. Then we tell them."

"Why? Why not tell them now?"

"Honestly, your world can't handle these weapons. No world can. They're too destructive. What would you do if you, the government, found out about a God-level weapon? You'd take it, causing a chain reaction that would set your world down to the same false peace ours is at now!"

"Hey, you two done talking yet?" Weiss questioned, almost yawning over the intercom before catching herself. "We're about an hour out from the other jet, so you need to get ready." She clicked off the channel.

"Okay, that's that! We need to get ready." I said, effectively ending the conversation.

"Alright, but we _will_ finish this conversation later." she said

"It's a date!" I joked.

"No, you're not that handsome. More like a meeting between friends to discuss an important issue that could save the world or ruin it." She said, flatly, getting up and walking out.

 ** _Dude, you're on fire today!_**

 _Shut up, I'll crack Mt. Belladonna another day..._

I waited a bit, so as not to seem desperate, then walked to the bathroom to finally do my business. As I opened the door, early dawn light flooded in, through the porthole, proof of how long I'd talked to Blake.

One hour later, we were all standing on the flat top of the jet, preparing to launch the attack. Well, all of use except for Sue. She was with the pilot in the cockpit while Nora was manning (er Womanning) the weapons pod. Both were eager to start attacking, but I reminded them that there were teammates on that ship, and that they could destroy it later once we landed them and looted the second one.

The wind whipped through my hair, and I felt the altitude sickness starting to come back... Nora mustv'e noticed, because the next moment she said

"It'll be _fiine,_ just don't look down, okay?"

 _Gee, thanks._

"Alright guys, we ready?" We were now only 60 meters away from the other jet, and I could see the logo emblazoned on top.

"As ready as I'll ever be..." Pyrrah muttered as I wrapped my arms around her stomach.

"Initiate Special Mo-" I started to say.

 ** _(Cue Stardust Witch Meruru (Oreimo) - Meteor impact theme song (EO drumstep Remix))_**

"Just get on with it already, Chris!" Blake interrupted.

"And I even had a name for it too..." I mumbled.

"Alright, alright! Lydia, Blake: you ready?" I asked, going to the opposite end of the ship with Pyrrah.

"Weiss, NOW!" I yelled, running and leaping off towards the other ship. As I plummeted, Weiss conjured up some speed and jump glyphs, propelling us towards our target while also giving me something to stand on. As Pyrrah and I neared the enemy jet Lydia, now fully armored up, and Blake -sitting astride her shoulders- repeated our action. Once we got close enough, Weiss placed a final boost pad. Launching us onto the jet, we rolled and came to a stop, Pyrrah in a fighting position. I almost kept sliding, but Pyrrah used her semblance to grab the metal in my boots and slow my slide across the surface.

"Thanks for the save." I said

"We're not out of the woods yet..." she replied, snagging Lydia's armor and gently setting it down next to us. Blake jumped off, spotted an opening, and dove into it.

"I've got a partner to save!" She yelled.

We made our way to the front and, using the cutting equipment found on our jet, cut our way into the lounge looking for the leader. Behind us, a lone guard popped his head out of a hatch, saw us, and ducked back down before we could react.

"Crap, we've gotta get down there faster!" I said. Abandoning stealth, Lydia drew back her armored fist and pounded it into the half-cut metal, knocking it inwards with a single blow!

Jumping down, the three of us made encountered several guards who attacked us instantly. I counted 7 guards.

"Lydia?" I gestured towards the soldiers.

" With pleasure!" She said, moving to intercept them.

Her armored head scraped across the ceiling, but even then, she made short work of three of the guards before two got past her. She didn't notice due to her still fighting the other two guards, who were more like monsters. Pyrrah left the guards to me, though I have no doubt she could handle them herself if she so pleased. Tackling one, I was a bit off balance, enabling the other to grab me from behind, pinning me in front of him. Raising its massive fist, the guard prepared to beat the shit out of me. He was just about to strike me when my blades- which I had dropped to the floor- rose up and hit him in the chest, discharging their power into him, causing him to straighten out. Since he was close to me, I simply moved my head to the side of the incoming fist, causing it to streak past me and into the shoulder of the thug holding me, weakening his grip in his left arm. I broke my arm free and punched him in the temple, stunning him. Making sure the area was clear, I pulled out our map of the ship and directed Lydia to find Jaune, Ren, and Yang and meet up with Blake. Pyrrah and I made our way into the cockpit and knocked out the pilot. Pyrrah was busy manipulating the custom-made magnets we had found holding the missile covers in place to pin the unconscious guards to the floor. Once we had sufficiently damaged the controls, the jet was to be set to its original destination, albeit at a reduced speed. This gave the former guards- now prisoners inside their own ship- time to escape. I was to locate and search the cargo bay to see what I could find. Sliding down the ladder, I was almost to the bay when it happened.

"Chris, I don't think I can hold this. I think... I think I might pass out..." Pyrrah's voice came in over the intercoms throughout the ship. She was supposed to sound fatigued and in pain, but she wasn't too good at it...

"Hang in there!" I called into the nearest com box, trying not to let my smile be heard. Actually, the plan for us to ignore her cries for help. The remainder of the troops would encounter not a tired, helpless young woman, but one well trained in the art of kickassery.

Suddenly, I was almost crushed by a mob of 7 or 8 soldiers screaming and fleeing from something. As I was in the cargo hold there was no way out. Behind them, a dull red glow appeared, brightening as it turned the corner. It was Yang. Or should I say, Super SaiYang. Welding her chains like brass knuckles, she was on them in a flash Punching the nearest one into the wall so hard he made a bulge in the metal, she continued her witty banter.

"How do you like _Them_ apples?"

 _Whoa_ _, they have a_ right _to be scared,_ Ithought _. Those Puns are terrible... She is pretty scary in her own right, though..._

"You with these guys?" She yelled to me as she passed.

"Nope, just here to save my..." I stammered, because SaiYang still scared the crap out of me. " comrades."

"Hmph" was the only reply I received.

By this time, she was done and heading into the cargo bay to get her equipment. I sensed something was wrong, but I couldn't figure it out. Suddenly, it came to me! "Yang, no!" I cautioned, figuring heat + explosives= BOOM. She ignored me and continued to run farther down the hallway. I reached out to grab her arm and warn her.

"Holy SHIT you're hot!"I yelped, instantly withdrawing my smoldering fingertips and waving them around in a vain attempt to cool them off.

Meanwhile, Yang was still continuing forwards -oblivious of my attempt to stop her- into the cargo hold.

Which was still half-full from the aborted raid on Beacon.

 ** _"Oh Fuc-"_** Hope and I yelled in unison as the cargo bay erupted in a huge ball of flames, blowing the entire section outside of the ship. Heat, metal and shrapnel bombarded me, and I felt my aura begin to flicker in overexertion. The metal that previously separated us from the cold air was no more, and the last thing I remembered was the feeling of the roaring wind as it ripped us out of the plane, as well as a searing pain.

 **(_-_-_-END CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 ** _Soo... How'd ya like the chapter, eh? Technically, this was my first_ actual _battle scene. I think I did pretty good, even though it was a small sequence._**

 **Minor _spoiler alert: I'm gonna be getting_ pretty _close with Yang for a while..._**

 ** _I'll leave it to you to decipher what that means..._**

 ** _'Til next chapter!_**


	14. Chapter 11: Split Ends

**Nope, no header here. I just can't wait until next week!**

 **(_-_-_-BEGIN CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 11: Split Ends**

 **Day #04**

 **June 07, 2015**

 **Earth**

I jolted upright from the pain that should have followed, but it never came. Instead, I was in a strange bedroom, wrapped in a thin blanket barely covering my leg.

 _Well, that's not_ that _weird..._

My sheets were drenched in a layer of cold sweat. Strange... I don't remember being a heavy sweater, sleep or awake. I rolled over, and almost shit my pants. There was something- make that someone- in the bed with me!

"EEK!" I squealed in surprise, causing the big, blonde, mass lying next to me to shift.

"Just one more minute, Weiss!" it groaned in a familiar voice, punching at some invisible object- an alarm clock, I presumed.

What is up with Weiss being mentioned in conjunction with waking up? I asked myself, remarking that Ruby had muttered something similar as well.

I sat up, quietly ignoring my racing heartbeat, and listened for any noises from the surrounding rooms. There was none.

 _Good, no one heard me_.

"Uhh, Yang?" I whispered in her ear, tapping her shoulder.

She slowly sat up and said "Hey, Rubes. It's kinda cold in... here..." That was when I noticed that she was naked.

"Whoa Yang! Cover up!" I hissed, turning away. She was wearing a bright yellow pair of panties that were borderline nonexistent, and I couldn't tell if she had anything on top because -fortunately- her mane covered her up pretty well. _Un_ fortunately, I noticed I was similarly stripped, too, except for my underwear -which were becoming tighter by the second.

"Oh, not this shit again!" I muttered.

"Uh, uh, well, you see..." I stammered. Yang scowled at me, blushing just as furiously, and rolled over to the other side of the bed, which -being a waterbed- roiled and shifted with her movements, causing her to almost hit the window. I grabbed her ankle, stopping her just in time.

"What did you do to me?" She demanded, kicking her foot free, crouching into a brawlers stance, and putting up her fists.

 _Why. Why couldn't it have been Ruby who came back with me?_

"Wow, this is... unusual..." I cautiously said, prepared to dive away the second things got uglier.

 _thump, thump, thump_. I could hear my mom's footsteps coming down the hallway, and I hastily grabbed the covers and threw them over the scantily-clad blonde, earning a muffled "Hey!" from Yang, though she quickly got the idea and slid under them. I leapt out of bed as quickly as possible, ran into my closet, and waited for my mom to arrive at my door.

"Chris? You okay?" She asked. "I thought I heard you shrieking again"

"Again?" Yang muttered, cocking an eyebrow at me with a impish grin on her face, causing me to glower at her.

"Yeah, mom. I'm fine. Just a stink bug snuck up on me, that's all! Now go back to bed, you need the sleep!"

"Uhh, okay son... So long as it's not one of those night terrors-"

"Goodnight, mom!" I almost yelled. Looking across, Yang was hysterical, barely keeping in her laughter as the footsteps receded back towards the other end of the hallway.

"Okay, hearing that is almost worth being assaulted, I'll give you that-" She said, chuckling, "but, you still have to die." She said with a cruel look on her face and a glint in her eyes. I paled, as I was _literally_ staring death in the eyes. Then, slowly at first, a huge grin spread over her face, and I knew I had been the butt of a joke.

"W-why?" I muttered, clutching my chest in a vain attempt to calm my racing heartbeat as she laughed

"Haha. It was Ren's idea..." She said, leaning back barely holding in her laughter.

"Whaaa?" was all I could squeak out as I collapsed to the floor in relief.

 _That little..._

"At first, I really _was_ angry with you" She said "no one had ever touched me like that before. Well, not without malice." I cocked an eyebrow. She glowered at me. "That's why I was so furious. Then I was talking to Ren while we were imprisoned. They had given us some sort of serum that was supposed to make us share our most embarrassing moments."

"Well, that _does_ sound like something Despayre would do. I mean, he _is_ a jerk. And, well... nevermind." I said, not bringing up the other... stuff. Once again, I noticed something. "Wait, Yang. I was your greatest embarrassment?"

"No, well, you see... For some reason, the serum didn't work as well on me. I noticed that only after the fact, because there are some other- Well, nevermind. I coudl barely lie and say you were the most, but I did. Anyways, Ren heard me, and, while we were still imprisoned, he talked to me about it. Not as if I had anything better to do, besides plan our escape."

"Wait, Yang. I didn't do anything intentionally. I only touched your breasts by accident. Somehow you followed me back when I went to sleep..."

"Whadya mean, 'sleep'?" She said, sitting up and cocking her head.

 _Oh crap,_ I had almost forgotten our attire.

"One second, Yang." I said, going over to my dresser and picking out a pair of t-shirts & shorts for both of us.

"Anyways, this is a normal occurrence for you?" She said, still under the covers with her head peeking out. I tossed her the shirt and pants and turned around, putting on a blue shirt & tan shorts as Yang did the same behind me. Satisfied, we both faced each other. Yang was wearing a yellow tee and some brown plaid shorts.

"How do I look?" She said, getting out of bed, raising her arms, and doing a little twirl.

 _Hot as hell_ , I thought.

"Like someone trying to cosplay as me and failing." I said contrary to my unwarranted thoughts.

"There's _nothing_ hotter than seeing a girl wearing your clothes..." I muttered, subconsciously licking my lips as I thought of Ruby wearing one of my black tees and a pair of my red cargo shorts...

"Umm... Hello? Remnant to Chris?" Yang was saying, waving her hand in my face.

"Uhh... What now? " I said, snapped out of my fantasy. Thinking of Ruby brought something to my attention. "Wait. Yang." I started.

"Yeah?"

"Your stupidity might have gotten us killed! I was at least knocked out, because I distinctly remember telling you to watch out before your burning aura ignited the leftover explosives in the bomb bay! That's the last thing I remember before blacking out, other than the fact that the bay exploded and I was sucked into the sky. This is earth, most definitely, because you sent me back here when you knocked me out the first time, as well as when Ozpin knocked me out! So welcome to it, I guess... I said, closing my eyes so I didn't strangle her.

 _I swear, Yang, if you got in between us, there will be no government on earth that can save you from my wrath!_

"Dammit Yang, let's just go back to sleep. Here, you can lie back down on the bed this way and I'll lie the other direction."

"Wait, I wasn't planning on going to sleep yet. Why?" She asked, puzzled.

"Well, I think that when I sleep here, I'm awake on Remnant."

"Okay, but when do you dream?" She questioned.

"I haven't 'slept' in almost a week." I joked, "but I always wake up refreshed somehow."

"Huh. maybe, I'll stay up after you. I just wanna see how you look, though I can't wait to see Ruby and the others!" She said as we climbed into bed after I locked my industrial grade room door to prevent anyone from coming inside.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **So Guys, whadya think? Why do you think Yang is visiting our world? Drop a Review, comment or anything. Don't all rush at once!** **Anyways, these chapters are getting harder & harder to get out, due to college applications, internships, and the like! ****Stay tuned for next weeks installment, where we learn what _really_ happened after the fall...**


	15. Chapter 12: More than Meets the Eye

**Hopefully this chapter makes it out on time... It's getting harder & harder, but after Nov 1st, I should be back to normal. Super excited about... well everything from RWBY seas -er, _Volume-_ 3 coming out this weekend (I think, right guys? ) to the Death Battle between Yang  & Tifa Lockheart. ****Also, Bold/Italics are Yang's thoughts, Regular italics are Chris's.**

 **-Update-**

 **Yeah, this was a crazy week. I had an internship application due Friday, take the ACT on Saturday, and attend a robotics expo right after. Then I got distracted watching Iron Blooded Orphans... Sorry for the late update.**

 **-Update 1/12/2016-**

 **Hey guys, I changed a couple of lines in this chapter pertaining to Crang's genitals that puts Yang in better character. Okay, that might sound weird to those who haven't read this chapter yet,so I'll just shut up now...**

 **By the way, None of these characters belong to me (except Team CBLT, Aric Lightning, and Seraph Schnee, and** **the jets do, :P)**

 **(_-_-_-_Begin Chapter** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 12: More than meets the eye**

 **Day #04**

 **June 07, 2015**

 **Remnant**

When I woke up, the other nine members plus a battered Ren were standing over me.

"Wh- What happened?" I- Chris? said, attempting to get up and failing. Pyrrah carefully knelt down and picked me- Yang? up and sat us? back in a salvaged chair. I risked a glance . We were surrounded by wreckage- the wreckage of the jet.

"When'd you get so Picky?"A voice that was not my own emanated from my lips.

 _Haha... I got that. Stupid pun though. Wait, when did I start rating my own jokes?_

 ** _What the Eff are_ you _doing here? Why can't I see you, you cheeky bastard?_**

"Oh man. Oh. Man. It's true! Look at them!" Lydia said, covering her mouth with her hand and pointing to me- Chris.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" I- Chris said.

"Does anybody have a mirror?" She said, ignoring my query.

"No, but I do have a scroll. It should have a front-facing camera." Nora said, pulling it out and fiddling with it for a few seconds. "Alright here it is." She held it out to me.

"Aahh!" I yelled, startled. On the screen was a disturbing portmanteau of Yang and I. It was as if someone had cut us right down the middle and stitched halves of us together. On the right side was my right arm, leg, and ear, along with half of my face and chest.

On the other side was Yang's matching parts. We both should have been covered in bruises, but we weren't.

We ran our hands over our face, feeling the new contours of our body. Yang hissed as I instinctively ran a hand over our shared chest. I blushed as I noticed that, between us, we only had one breast.

"Okay, new rule. You keep your hand on your side, and I keep my fist above the belt. Got it?" She said, reading my -our, now- mind, which, sad to say was running some pretty lewd thoughts.

"Okay, okay. Point taken. Speaking of privates, one second. Close your eyes, girls. And too, Yang!"

"Oh, No... Anything but that!" Yang groaned. I turned around and thrust a hand into my pants. Still there, good. I was relieved, as almost any man would be.

"Hmm... Acceptable." She commented aloud on my size. ** _Pfft, maybe for Ruby..._** she ****added subconsciously, causing both of us to blush as I received... imaginative scenarios... to prove the point.

"Shut your face, Yang. Our brains are connected, idiot." I said as I then received several unwanted images associated with the male reproductive organ in my mind.

"Uhh. I don't know where those came from." She stammered "I kinda forgot we share a mind now, sorry..."

"Really Yang? _Playfaunus_? Oh no. Not. That. Anything but that. Wait? You were sizing him up at the same time? Oh, you stole some beer too, didn't you? Right after you destroyed his club!"

"Hey, it was an opportunity!"

Neither of us noticed the rest of the team backing away slowly.

"Okay, okay, TMI!" Weiss interrupted, her face turning beet red.

"Yes. We'll finish this later. Man, I never knew you had a freaky side, Yang. Anyways, I'm glad you're- we're- okay, I guess..."

"Huh, thanks..." She grunted, but a strange sensation traveled through my brain.

 ** _That was nice of him. Perhaps he's not a_ complete _asshole._** I smiled.

"Now, can anyone tell us what happened during the attack?" Yang asked.

"Yes. Once you went down below to check for the equipment, I waited a bit and faked like I was in pain. You plan worked perfectly, by the way. Almost 8 guys came running, including the captain of the ship. They were a _bit_ tough, but once I held their captain hostage, they dropped their weapons." Pyrrah explained.

 ** _Liar_** , Yang & I thought in unison, smiling. We both knew the redhead was _more_ than capable of taking on a squad.

"Then Rennie showed up, right before the ship fell out of the sky." Nora added, patting Ren in the head.

 _I'm gonna punch him._

I stumbled forwards towards him, and punched him full in the face, causing him to fall back a step.

Everyone- except Nora, who was pinning me down in a flash- just stared. Ren, who- _was that a smile_ \- bowed.

"Nora, let him go. I kinda deserved that." he said, smiling, wiping his mouth.

"But-" she started.

"Nora..." He warned.

"Oh, you're no fun..."Nora whined, helping me- us- up.

" _That's_ for making me think I was gonna die. Other than that, I'm really sorry that you all had to get caught up in this." I said, rubbing my neck and looking down.

"Don't worry about it. This is all in a day's, or two's, work for a Huntress!" Nora said.

"Anyways, when the ship crashed, we were off of it. Unfortunately, we think both of your weapons might have been destroyed." Brie said, eliciting a nervous chuckle.

"WHAT!?" we yelled in unison. "B-but I hadn't even got to name mines!" I said "And I made Ember Celica myself!" Yang said. We complained at the same time, so it came out as a jumble since we shared a mouth.

"Did _any_ weapons survive the crash?" I asked.

"Probably, but Yang, you destroyed -no- _vaporized_ Chris's weapons when you absorbed all of the explosion, and we think that both of your bodies initiated a self-preservation measure- remember, both of you have absorbing powers of some sort. You're kinetic, Yang, and Chris, I guess that'd make you energy absorbing. That's _my_ theory of why you two are like this." Tiffany said.

"So we have not a single weapon between the two of us -a pair that both _dual-wielded,_ mind you- and now we're stuck like this?" I said, not sure I was hearing correctly.

"Yes." they said. "We'll leave you two to talk it out now, 'kay?" Brie said, motioning the rest of the group away.

"Oh. Well, it could've been worse, right?" I said.

"How so?" Yang groaned.

"At least we both want to... _protect_... Ruby, right?" I said. Instantly, I knew Yang was onto me as my thoughts were laid bare.

"Oh, _Chrysophylax_ , you have a crush on my sister, don't you?" She teased.

"Uh... no? Don't use my full name. Please. It's embarassing." I pleaded

"Don't make me repeat the question. _Please_." She shot back. "We share a brain now, remember? 'Your thoughts are my thoughts' and all that." She said, and I could feel a huge grin creasing our face.

"Shit, forgot about that!" I muttered.

"I see Pyrrah knows about it, and the pilot does too. Ohhhh you are so cute, Chris! The way you reacted to Pyrrah finding out has me dying!" She -we were rolling around on the ground clutching our sides in laughter as I felt the warmth of blood rising in our cheeks. She was looting my brain for information. "And now you're blushing? This is too good! Jeez, you're really crushing hard, aren't you?"

"I'd much rather not talk about it. Kind of like your 'hobbies'."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop. You got me, I won't say anything." She said, looking at me sourly.

"Anyways, " I said "let's look around and try walking, just to see how this works. It shouldn't be too hard, since we do share a brain."

We stepped forwards, easily, but as we walked, I noticed we had a limp.

"I know, How 'bout we try activating Super SaiYang? I wanna see how our semblance works." Yang asked.

"Hmm... I was on the receiving end every time I saw that, and it did nothing good for me." I said

"Nonsense. It enabled you to hang out with Ruby and Pyrrah!" She retorted.

"Yeah, and also to get thrown in prison 'cause of a certain Blonde." I countered

"Hey, I thought that you had hurt my sister. And you had." she said.

I was silent.

"Okay, power up!"

"I swear, I heard music playing starting in the background." I said

"Yeah, that always happens whenever I do this." She said, nonchalantly.

 _"This world keeps getting weirder and weirder..._ " I mumbled.

"Huu... Gahh" We said, slamming our fists together. Our hair turned yellow, and the air around us blazed in a cross for a quick second. I shut our eyes, instinctively. I could tell I was on fire, but I couldn't feel it burning me.

"Yo, is this lightning a part of your Semblance?" Yang yelled over the music. I opened my eyes. Sure enough, electricity was crackling around us as well.

"Yeah, It was. It's what brought Pyrrah back to life."

The music, flames, and electricity stopped abruptly.

"What?" She yelled.

"Nothing. Nothing at all" I replied. Apparently, she didn't want to hear about it at all, cause she didn't do anything.

"Well, that went smoothly. At least we're close-ish in height." I noted as we began limping around, searching the debris for Ember -or any weapon for that matter-.

"Yeah, can you imagine doing this with Weiss? The height difference alone would ruin us!" She agreed.

"Even though I'm a few inches taller than you. Actually, I think before we got that far, we'd be dead." I remarked.

"Yeah, she's not a wild person as I noticed you are. You have some _wild_ thoughts, man! How do you always act so chill and serious?"

"It's a curse. I always come across as creepy." I said, as we easily turned over a huge shelf that came from the cargo bay, exposing 4 large, shockproof boxes that must've laid on the shelf.

"Whoah, maybe Stormflower and Ember are in there!" Yang said, memories of Ren wielding a pair of green, bladed pistols popping up.

Together, we ripped the top off the first box. "Whoa. That must've been what caused the huge explosion." I said.

The box was filled with layer upon layer of Dust vials and crystals, as well as a dozen droppers, measuring cups, and a small centrifuge, as well as a strange-looking loom.

"Looks like this was the supply jet for the operation." I said.

"Oh wow! They even have Black Dust, too? I thought that was a myth. I wonder what it does..." Yang questioned.

"Moving on!" I said, quickly closing the box before she could get any more curious.

We moved onto the next box. It was full of strange clothes with small, almost microscopic channels woven into the fabric.

As we searched through it, we noticed that we were barely clothed. My clothes had burnt off below the knee, whilst Yang had lost her skirt and jacket, leaving us with nothing but a yellow top that fit us awkwardly over a tan shirt and a impromptu pair of shorts.

Inside the crate, among the clothes, there was a clear duster. We picked it up, and a set of instructions fell out. "What are those?" I said.

 _PLEASE READ. FAILURE TO DO SO CAN CAUSE LOSS OF LIMB, SIGHT, AND/OR DEATH. THANK YOU FOR BUYING A LIMITED EDITION NEMEAN CLOAK. PLEASE HAVE YOUR DUST INFUSION(s) READY._

"Hmm... I wonder what this is- oh. Dust infused clothes? Sounds awesome!" I said, catching Yang's scant memories of the type.

"We do have a lot of Dust here..." Yang remarked.

"Yeah? Oh no, Yang, we are not going to-"

"Oh, and I've always wanted some Dust-infused stuff, but it costs a fortune!" Yang mewled, scratching our head.

"No. I'm putting my foot down on it."

"Well, we're going to do it, whether you like it or not!" Yang said. Suddenly, it was like every nerve of mines was fighting my brain, but- to my horror, my arm started to twitch. Yang's curiosity was forcing my body- our body- to obey, her iron will attempting to overpower mines, and suddenly, we started seizing up, our shared brain filled with conflicting orders.

 _Yang-s-stop!_

 ** _But I want that duster!_**

 _I know, I do too, but we need to proceed carefully, or else this pairing won't work!_

 ** _Why are you stopping me then?_**

 _Because that's dangerous materials you're working with. And we both know you aren't capable of..._ memories of working and experimenting with Dust in class flooded my brain. I could feel Yang laughing, mentally at least. _Okay, so maybe you have a little experience. Let's slow down. I think I can feel ourself choking!_

 _ **'kay**_. Taking from the previous box a collection of dust vials, droppers, and stands, soon we had a veritable lab going on. Suddenly, the scroll Aric had given us (ours had been either vaporized or taken) started ringing. The ID said it was Blake.

"Yo!" We said in unison, answering the call as we continued to work.

 _ **What kind of dust do you want in it?**_

 ** _Let's see.. They were only carrying base dust_ **_-Saves categorizing costs,_ I noted- _And our colors are Brown & Yellow and Cobalt & Tan. I guess we can do blue for me and gold for you! **Oh yeah, We're talking to Blake! I'll mix the dust up and infuse it while you chat with her 'kay?**_

"I'm sorry Blake. What was that? The call dropped out for a second." I said. It felt strange to not be directly controlling my arms' movements, but I ignored that.

"I don't know what you meant by that, but I was asking how are you and Yang getting along?"

"Well, we were looking for Ember, but we found some... stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" she said, suspicion in her voice.

"Oh the usual: Parts, assorted weapons. Stuff like that, Y'know? Nothing to worry about!" I stalled.

"Chris. I am a faunas, and I was trained in interrogation _and_ lie detection. I need _none_ of those skills to tell you are either lying or telling a half-truth. So; I ask again: What kind of stuff? Dust? Weapons? Both?"

"Alright, alright! Jeez, you're worse than my mother... We found a case full of Dust crystals and we didn't get past that yet."

"Why? And what is Yang doing? She usually can't shut up, and I know you're _connected_ now." She said that with a hint of- "Wait, was that jealousy, Blake?" Yang finally said, pausing her work.

 ** _BTW, I got the lightning thread mixed into the infuser! One more element to go!_**

 _Wow, look at that; a smart blonde! Now I've seen it all!_

I could feel a bit of anger directed at me, which, mingled with the humor I got, made the feeling even weirder.

"W-what? No. I was just making an observation. Anyways, we found something really weird on the holomap!"

"What?" Yang and I said in unison.

"LET. ME. FINISH!" Blake snapped, growling. "Anyways, I was just reviewing the map hologram, seeing if we had missed anything. All of a sudden, a red light started blinking, and the ship started up. I don't know how long we have, or if it'll even happen, but in the few vids I've seen-"

"That means a failsafe recall function!" Yang interrupted, a feeling of elation coursing through my skull.

"... yeah. That." Blake said, obviously annoyed.

"Anyways, you should probably head back."

"Like, ASAP!" Nora added.

"Okay, but you're not telling me something. What is it? You've been really brusque ever since we woke up." I said, honestly puzzled as to how I knew her so well.

 _ **My memories,**_ Yang commented.

"I'll see you back at the ship." Blake said, abruptly terminating the call.

"Blake?"

 ** _Well, that was rude. Even by my standards..._**

 _I think I might know why._

 _ **Why?**_

 _Because she's been looking for you since the capture, and now I'm in the way._

 ** _What do you mean 'in the way'?_**

 _Well, don't take this the wrong way, but she can't express herself with me as she could with her partner, ya know? I've taken away her chance to reconnect with you in the way she wants to._

 ** _Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense..._**

 _And another thing you should know... Weiss and Pyrrah_ did _almost die yesterday,_ We both almost cried when I brought up those memories.

 _and Ruby and Jaune are still nowhere to be found._ We were now crying openly from the combined feelings of guilt, horror, and sadness of being unable to protect our friends.

A minute into our blubbering, we heard a was the machine signifying the clothes were done.

 ** _Wow... a lot has happened since last week..._** Yang thought, brushing a tear away as we picked the duster up.

"Let's try it on, shall we?" I said aloud, eliciting a small smirk from Yang.

"Yeah, let's!" The Duster was beautiful. It came out as a half blue, half yellow affair, with gold being dominant on Yang's side and blue on mines. As we slid it on, I could feel it mingling with our aura, and it began to glow and crackle, straightening out into a beaver tail behind us before settling down to how normal clothes should fit. I could feel the power surging through me- through us.

 _ **Who gets to keep it?**_

 _I do, duh!_

 _ **Fat chance, buddy!**_

 _Guess we'll deal with that when we get there?_

 ** _Fair 'nuff._**

 _Okay, let's pack this stuff up and have the others load it up._

 ** _Sounds good._**

After calling CBLT, which was the only team in optimal strength, we had them load up the four boxes, which we'd go through later, and kept looking for Ember.

 **(_-_-_-END CHAPTER** **_-_-_-_)**

 **Soo guys, How'd you like it?** **I'm sure that's not how you make dust infused clothes, but whatever! It wasn't explained in the show either. I thought of just having it be dipped in liquid dust, but that would be a bit harder to customize.** **At first, I had Yang and I still hating each other's guts, but I don't think I could handle Weiss, Blake, _and_ Yang Being frustrated with me. That'd be a recipe for disaster. Oh wait, I think I might have spoiled that a little. In other matters, anyone guess who -or what- is missing from this chapter? Have a blessed week! **


	16. Chapter 13: Pizza & Planning

_**Hey guys! I'm super excited about RWBY Volume 3! I watched the first episode on Monday night. I love the new ending, and I hope it stays the same, and it wasn't just a teaser for things this season. I still don't know whether to be mad or glad that, due to that, it seems like we're moving in the same direction. I guess it could be kinda cool, giving my story some place in the series timeline (for my place only, not implying this is endorsed or supported by Roosterteeth), but I'd have to do a few things I'd- er, 'Lax wouldn't like. Was anyone else getting strange Beyblade Vibes from the Vytal Festival stadium? I know I was expecting them to say "LET IT RIIIP"**_

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 13: Pizza & Planning_**

 ** _Day #04_**

 ** _June 08, 2015_**

 ** _Remnant_**

About an hour after we regained consciousness, we noticed a bright yellow glint sticking up out rubble.

"YIPPEEE! Yes, yes, yes!" Yang yelled, and I couldn't help but feel glad, not with the endorphins racing through my brain as we ran forwards.

They were covered in dirt, and much of the paint was scraped off. They were dented heavily, and from at first glance, I could tell they'd need some heavy fixing before they were usable again.

"Nah, it only looks that way. Ember's been through worse. Just needs some time in the forge." Yang smiled, giddy with joy.

I felt all the memories flow through my head -long hours spent designing Ember, perfecting her badass landing maneuver, killing hundreds of Grimm, and countless other memories.

"Whoa, Yang. I didn't know you can do all that." I said, feeling the sweet waves of remembrance. I tried to be optimistic, but it was hard when all you wanted to do was destroy something.

 _Her weapons had been saved mostly, but mines were gone? Really?_

"Maybe we can find you some new ones!" Yang said.

"I doubt it. These babies were custom made..."

"Well, we can alway-"

"Don't tell me they can be replaced! They can't!" I interruted, calmly.

"'Lax, that was only one of the thoughts running through my mind. I was actually going to say we can get an expert to repair them, or even rebuild them." she said, kneeling down and picking up one of the gauntlets. It was, like everything else, lighter than it looked. She hit a switch, and the weapon jerked, but didn't transform like it was supposed to.

"C'mon, Yang. Let's go back to the ship... We'll figure out what to do later. Right now, we need to get back and see what Blake discovered." I said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." she agreed, hesitantly.

As we made our way back to the intact ship, we were walking past the main part of the wreck when I noticed a pair of green, oblong shapes on the ground. Yang wiped our eyes with the back of a hand, causing me to smile faintly.

 _Thanks for the hug offer, anyways..._ _Wh- what? Is that Stormflower?_ I asked

 ** _Looks like it. I guess their small sized helped them to land intact._**

We sniffed, and I could smell pizza cooking. Once we got inside, Blake started towards us with a glint in her eyes, but she stopped almost instantly, replacing the smile with a dark scowl before stalking off.

 ** _Whoa, you might be right 'Lax._**

 _"Don't call me that..."_

" _IIIT'S LUUUNCHTIIIMEEE!_ " Nora and Brie sang into the intercom, causing us to jump.

As we gathered 'round to eat, Nora and Brie came out of the galley, each bearing two large Pizzas, with which I assumed to be pepperoni on top. Licking my lips, Yang and I snagged a few pieces before sitting down in the lounge to consume them.

"Mmm, pizza, " I said "one of the best foods on... well, anywhere!" Yang agreed, **_though oatmeal is great for breakfast- as long as it's not too hot or too cold, ya know!_** she added.

(-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-)

"Well, the strangest part is that, well, the data doesn't make sense." Lydia said, frostily when I asked her what was up, as we consumed our meal.

"What data doesn't make sense?" I inquired, taking a big bite of my pizza. It was _reeally_ good.

"Well, it's where the beacon is located. It's located where there should be nothing but Ocean."

"hmm..." I thought for a moment. " Maybe it's an oil rig?" The group was staring at me, blankly. Lydia facepalmed.

"What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?" I said.

 ** _They don't know what oil is._**

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Oil is a _bit_ like a liquid version of dust. We use it to power most of our machines on Earth. It's mostly mined from the seas and oceans, though, like the Schnee Company, we also mine for it on land." The group _oohed_ and nodded their understanding.

"Anyways," I continued "we build platforms that are capable of digging deep into the seafloor and pumping the oil up as we extract it. I think Despayre might have used this concept to build a mobile ocean base, which only solidifies my theory that he's had some interaction with Earth. Weiss, is there any possibility that there's Dust deposits in the oceans?"

"Well, our company hasn't tried mining anything on the oceans yet, though that might be a good idea, actually."

"Okay, that is a good thing. It means they're not mining it. If they were, then your company would experience a noticeable decrease in profits."

 _ **Maybe we should go into the Dust trade before this is all over, get a few patents...**_

 _Maybe we should!_

We had boarded at just the right moment, because at just then, the plane began to groan and shudder, and there was a high pitched whine that caused Blake and Brie to screech and hiss. Blake looked as if she wanted to strangle something, and Brie jumped onto the ceiling, ears pressed back on her head, dropping her pizza and digging in with her claws.

 _PREPARING FOR TAKEOFF_ the computer said.

"Is it supposed to sound like that?" Tiffany said, and we reflexively clutched the desktop.

"Uhh... Brie?" I said, looking up.

"Huh? What?" She said, looking at me with startled eyes.

"You're on the ceiling."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I am." she said, promptly retracting her claws, falling down onto the table, rolling, and brushing off her clothes."Noone saw that." She said, blushing.

"Anyways, we must've left the parking brake on, eh? Eh?" I joked, elbowing Weiss as Yang -who could read my mind- got the joke and burst into laughter. Weiss winced as I came into contact with her still-tender flesh, glaring daggers at me as she held her shoulder, causing the teams to look at me funny "Okay, nevermind..." I said.

"Soo, anyways," Tiffany said "What's next? I mean, do we abandon ship, take on the pirates, or call Beacon?"

"We do all three." The pilot said on the intercom.

"What?" All ten of us said in unison.

" Yeah. First, we phone Beacon and finally tell them we're okay, and that we're in pursuit of the bombers. Then, once we get close enough to their base, we abandon ship, infiltrate their base, and destroy it." He explained.

"Why abandon ship?" I said.

"Well, they're probably gonna inspect the jet. They most likely have a crew manifest, and we're likely not on it. Well, maybe the girls and Ren are, as they were supposed to be captured anyways, but the five of us _definitely_ aren't." He said, meaning our team.

" Hold up," Lydia said "Why did you have to blast that through the ship? You're right here! And why can't we just knock the inspectors out and steal their uniforms? Then we can pretend PWBR are our prisoners. Seraph can pose as our 'commander', since she knows the rules and regulations."

"Hmm ... That would probably work, since those four are already supposed to be in custody." I agreed.

"Waait a second..." Weiss started "You've been giving out orders this entire time. Who put you in charge?" She said, hands on her hips.

"Oh, not this again..." Blake muttered.

"Well, I'm glad you asked that, Weiss. I'm in charge, because I'm the _only_ team leader present, unless Mr. Solo here runs a team."

"Who?" Ren raised an eyebrow while the pilot pointed to himself in a ' _Who me?'_ stance.

"Sorry. Star Wars reference? No? Okay. Nevermind... I was talking to the pilot."

"Yes, and no." he said.

"Y-you're a team leader? How is tha- oh. Team CBLT. I get it." Weiss sighed, annoyed.

"It's fine, I'm probably no better than Jaune, but he's more experienced."

"Well, you're not better than him, I can assure you of that; however you were waay more level-headed in your first... real... fight." Pyrrah said. I could see her fighting back tears as she thought of Jaune.

 ** _I can see the incident has left her a bit shaken. She's usually not like this._** Yang mused.

 _Shut up, Yang._ I said as I got up and put my arms around Pyrrah in the 'We're just bros'-iest way possible. Lydia rolled her eyes at me from across the aisle.

"It's okay, Pyrrah. Jaune's gonna be fine." I said- er, _attempted_ to say- soothingly.

The Amazon blushed slightly as I held her tightly, almost as if I would never let go, and I nodded to the teams. Soon her teammates and Yang & I surrounded her, encircling Pyrrah with our arms, rocking gently as she cried in the middle and whispering "It's okay, Pyrrah. Jaune's gonna be fine."

 _One day, and one day soon, I'm gonna rip you apart for fucking with my friends like this, Despayre._ I swore.

 _ **We're** **gonna fucking rip him apart you mean...** Yang thought._

"Gah, it's been such a long day, and it's only late afternoon..." I groaned after awhile, leaning back and crossing my arms over my chest.

"Blake? Are you up for taking a walk later, once we land?" I said, ignoring Yang's eagerness.

"... Why? I think I've done enough taking. I just wanna get Ruby and Jaune, defeat the pirates, torture Roman in the most painful ways imaginable, and go home. Not in that particular order." She snarled, daring me to come any closer.

"Okay, no walking 'til we're whole again, eh Chris?" Yang said, effectively ending the argument before it even began. "Anyways, I'm glad you're okay girls. That goes for you too Ice Queen." Yang said,

I interrupted her with a peal of sudden laughter."' _I- ice Queen_?' Hahaha, Oh, _God_ that's a good one, Yang" I roared, slapping the table. Weiss glared at me even harder, upgrading from dagger to a rapier.

"Okay, not funny... I get it." I muttered under my breath before Yang continued.

"I'm here if you wanna talk, Blake..." She sighed, sadly, and we got up and walked out, both annoyed by Blake's seeming callousness though it was slightly justified. I stopped us for a second. "Uhh, lunch is over?" I said uneasily before hastily relinquishing control to Yang. As we walked the halls, I could feel Yang's discomfort at the whole Blake situation.

 _ **Soo, what do you wanna do?**_

 _I guess we could go to the workshop and take a closer look at Ember Celica._

 ** _I guess it's better than nothing..._**

 _Or, we could go to sleep and I could show you around... My house, I mean._

 _ **Hmm... I guess that'd be kinda cool, y'know, seeing another world.**_

"Okay, Earth it is then. Beware, I don't really know how this process works, I just go to sleep and somehow I wake up on the other side." I said.

 **That's not reassuring at all, but eh, what the hell?**

 _Do you think you_ can _go to sleep, anyways?_ I asked.

 ** _Are you kidding me?_ _I'm the Champion of falling asleep instantly!_** Images of her getting back home at four in the morning flooded my mind. A couple of times, she stumbled in, half-drunk and in various states of undress.

 ** _Uhh... you never saw that..._** Yang stammered.

 _Ookay then. Now, with those images burned into my mind, I'll try to go to sleep._ I joked whilst muttering to myself about her extraordinary physique.

 ** _What was that?_** She was brimming with reserved humor, causing me to blush. _ **Just teasing, I know how you feel. Exactly. That was just a passing thought, so I'll treat it as a compliment,** _ she said lightheartedly. **_and not the creepy thought it actually was! Though, I guess I can't help it that I'm so attractive._** She said, pantomiming puffing her hair.

 _Please, you and I both know we're not compatible with each other._

 _ **Well, look where we are now, eh? Anyways, I think it's really brave, what you're doing for my sister.**_

 _Why? You huntresses-to-be do this stuff all the time._

 ** _Well, while you were thinking of Pyrrah, I noticed all the stuff you went through. At that point, you'd been here for three days. Not weeks, not months, not years, but days. Dude, that's Bad. Ass. All caps._** She said, and a wry smile crept across our face. **_Yeah, go ahead and blush. You really don't get many compliments, do you?_**

 _no, not really. Now that I think about it, I can't really give you a tour during the day._ I said, changing the subject.

 _ **because your parents would think we were shagging?**_

 _To put it bluntly, I guess..._

 _ **what, you've never... Wow. You haven't... how old are... Oh. I feel like a creep for that whole Nora thing.**_

 ** _NEXT Subject!_**

"Watch out!" Aric said, snapping us out of our thoughts and causing us to lurch to the side.

 _Saved by the bell!_ I thought.

"Sorry" We both said. He ignored us and strode over and smashed the intercom key.

"All hands to the lounge, we've got a problem."

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER_-_-_-_)**

 **So, what'd you think? Who's s _till_ missing from the chapter? And Why?**

 **Hope: _Duh! It's me, you insignificant dunderheads. How long was it gonna take for you to notice?_**

Me: _Actually, I'm sure some of them_ did _notice. How'd you get in here anyways? This section is roped-off._

Hope: **_Isn't it obvious?_**

Me: _Well, now it is! You snuck in here while I was too busy editing to notice!_

Hope: **_Okay... you weren't supposed to guess that easily!_**

Me: _Anyways, Soon,_ very _soon, we'll get another action Chapter, as well as an explanation for all of Chris's fighting skills!_

 ** _See Ya!_**


	17. Chapter 14: Intermission

**Dearly Sorry, guys! I thought I had posted this earlier, but, alas, I hadn't. Maybe this week we'll get double chapters! Anyways:**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 14: Intermission_**

 ** _Day #04_**

 ** _June 08, 2015_**

 ** _Remnant_**

"What's wrong?" we asked Aric, puzzled.

"Well, you know the final jet?"

"The one with Ruby on it?" I asked, hopefully.

"No, that jet's long gone. The other one. The one I assume was gonna be used for prisoner transport, before we disrupted their plans. Lets talk while we walk, people!" He said, motioning for us to come with him as he walked. We nodded, falling into stride behind him.

"It's on our tail. Guess they figured out our jet was hijacked, because they've been hailing us for the past five minutes. Now they're on an intercept course. Also, we can't be sure they didn't already call for backup."

"Well, what are we going to do?"

"I could go aboard, see if there are actually any prisoners there." Seraph volunteered over the radio

"Hmm... Maybe. it'll be a good test for later. Have the guns ready anyways." I said.

"This one will likely be better armored, so no cutting will work." Aric added. "Nora, Brie, to the gun pod. Chris/Yang, you're with me in the cockpit. Gunners, wait for my signal. Everybody else, sit down & buckle up. It's gonna get bumpy!" He said, taking control of the situation.

(-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-)

Fortunately, the situation _didn't_ get bumpy, and several minutes later, the ship was a few dozen meters off and to the top of our port side.

 _A safe distance for firing on us,_ the pilot had said, frowning. The jet had opened up a line, which Seraph responded to. The other jet had descended and boarded ours. Fortunately, our disguises worked. They had taken Seraph aboard for a debriefing, and we were now waiting in the lounge for her to get back.

"What do you think's going on up there?" Tiffany asked.

"Probably nothing. I'm sure she's fine. They only seemed like they wanted to know what happened to the prisoners." She said.

"So Pyrrah, what's the deal with your semblance?" I asked, voicing a question that had been on Yang and I's mind for a while.

"What do you mean?" She asked, puzzled. "I can control the polarity of metals."

"All metals, or just some?" I asked, curious. A big question was forming in my -our- mind.

"Well, I guess I can control all metals I've come into contact with."

"Soo... you could steer this ship by yourself?"

"Well, maybe not this much metal at once. I've never tried." She said, an edge in her voice.

"But you can manipulate smaller objects, like, say, a sword. Or a television screen. Or an exoskeleton that slipped into a certain set of clothes."

"Wh- Maybe." Pyrrah said, blushing slightly.

 _That explains a lot._

"Thanks, Pyrrah. I'd likely be dead without you." I sighed.

"You're welcome. You probably would have survived anyways. You're a tough guy." She said, obviously relieved at my response. The blush was gone, replaced by the usual calm, smiling face we all knew and loved.

"How many times _have_ you saved anyone without their knowing?" I messaged her, continuing our conversation through the scrolls.

"Only once." She replied.

"U-huh. And when was this?"

"The beginning of this term."

 ** _There's only one huntsman we know of who needed help fighting at that time._**

"Hmm... Was this person, by any chance, a blonde?" I messaged back.

No response.

"Hmmm... Jaune." I said out loud. Across the lounge, Pyrrah almost dropped her scroll. Resetting it, she furiously began pecking.

"How did you know?" was her hurried reply.

"I have my ways..." I said aloud."I won't tell, though Yang might."

"I'll tell you later, once things are back to normal." She replied. Abruptly, the PA system turned on.

" _Falcon-1, Falcon-1, this is Falcon-3, do you read me?"_

"Falcon-3, this is Falcon-1, we read you. Something wrong?"

 _"Well, we're getting a couple of strange readings on our display. Wait. Aric, is that you?"_

"Huh? Nate, you wry old rascal, is that you? What kind of strange readings?"

 _"Well, your ship is supposed to have 2 dozen men on it, but Seraph here only mentions half that number. Please clarify."_

"Most of our crew was poisoned by an impostor, " Aric lied "But we caught her and _-pause for effect-_ disposed of her."

 _"Okay, We'll deal with that problem later. Our biggest problem is that our scanner is picking up a huge flock of Grimm."_

"Define 'huge'" Aric said, quizzically.

 _"Your-mom Sized."_ The pirate joked before becoming serious again. _"But no, at least 30. We count 20 smaller ones and 10 adults."_

"Damn. I assume you mean Nevermores?" Aric whistled. "How much ammo you got?" He asked. We had like, two hardpoints on top of our jet, and we only had one missile tube we had installed last night.

 _"Well, we have 10 Grimmbuster Missiles. Those should be able to take out the adults, who are the most dangerous, obviously. In addition, we have three mounted Gatling guns -2 down below and one on top. We should be fine, so long as we stay away from them. What's your arsenal?"_ He responded.

"Well, we have ten pirates eager to prove themselves in battle. We really don't know how to operate the plane well, because that traitorous bitch killed our pilots while we were all sick." Aric lied, pouring as much fury he could into the statement. We just didn't know how to activate the heavy weapons, which Nate called Grimmbusters.

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end. _"Vee..."_ He whispered. For a few, terse minutes, there was silence, only broken by heavy breathing.

 _Oh God, I hope they weren't close._ I thought, imagining the pain and anger he must be feeling.

 ** _Wasn't she the one we... you, I mean, threw out with the other prisoners?_** Yang said.

No comment.

"Are you okay?" Aric asked

 _"Yeah, I'm..."_ his breath hitched, causing him to pause before continuing _" fine...Well, according to my readings, you also have a additional, open hardpoint available. How 'bout I send my guys down to install another Grimmbuster tube? We have one too many. We can't spare any missiles, but you can divide your current armaments between the two. While they're doing that, I can teach your gunner how to activate them."_

Yang and I whispered something into our pilot's ear.

"Ah, thanks," Aric said "My soldiers have an idea. How far out are those Grimm?"

 _"About an hour. Its our long-range suite. It detects a certain characteristic of the Grimm, but if I told you what, I'd have to kill you. I'd really rather not do that, seeing as you're my only company to fight with. By the way, your young lady's fine. She's in the lounge eating with our captain."_ He replied, switching gears back to the topic at hand. _"Hold on, I'm getting funny readings from the radar. It's updated its data. Shit. Now, it says only 27: 10 adult ones and 16 adolescents."_

"Nate. That's only 26. What's wrong?" Aric said, suspicion rising in his voice.

 _"The... the final one. The d-data says 'TOO BIG TO PROCESS'. This radar has been calibrated to the largest average parameters of Grimm. That means this one is over 200 feet wide."_

"Pheew," Aric whistled " that's... big as Fuck." He finished, as stunned as we all were.

 _Damn, good thing this room is soundproofed,_ I thought. Yang agreed.

 _I do have an idea, though._ We looked at the pilot and nodded.

" If you can get the launcher installed, my guys still think they can take out the big ones." Aric sighed, hitting the mute button "You kids are crazy, you know that, right?" He said, smiling ruefully and shaking his head.

 _"Also, one more thing. We have a..._ special _... weapons system for dealing with these Grimm."_

"Yeah?" Aric said, thumbing off the mute tab.

 _"Well, there's a dark button that'll appear once we're... Oh wait... Ask your gunner if they see a flashing blue light above the control board that says DATALINK."_ Nate said

"Nora! You see anything unusual lighting up in the Gun pod?" Aric said, switching channels.

"Yep! Under it, There's a Black button with a white hoop studded with 8 points. It's standing all alone by itself... Aww, it's soo lonely! Hitting it now!"

" Nora don't-" We yelled in unison. It was too late.

 _THUNK-THUNK SHIK-SHIK-SHIK._ The ship jolted to the side slightly as we fired something.

"Nora! WTF!?" Aric yelled into the mic.

"Ooh, even _more_ keys popped up!" Nora gasped in wonder.

"Ren! Assist Nora in the 'Pod, please." Yang said, as calmly as she could, into the intercom.

"On it." He said. It sounded as if he was already moving to do so anyways.

 _"Haha, looks like your gunner figured it out!"_ Nate laughed as we heard a similar THUNKing sound from his end. _"Now, we're connected via Four razor-thin wires. We make a few passes with this, we've got nothin' but sliced birdie! We're maneuvering above you now."_

"How do we keep from getting tangled up?" Aric asked.

 _"Oh, the AIs will take care of that. Now, have your gunner hit the button again. Detecting only one other ship in the vicinity, the computer only activates two pylons. You have 8, or enough to connect to four jets. They're located on a rotating ring in the middle. Careful, my guys are descending now with the missile tube."_

This instruction was followed by the CLANG of something dropping onto the hull, causing me to automatically reach for my nonexistent weapons.

"Sorry..." I said

 _ZZT. ZZT. ZZZT._ It was the sound of screws being driven into the roof.

"Aaand I'm glad we didn't pay for this ride." Aric said. The display lit up with a 3-D model of the ship, which then exploded into the different sections and highlighted a hardpoint opposite the other one.

 _ACCEPT CONNECTION?_ The display read.

"Accept connection." Aric said, nodding. The red, highlighted section blinked green, then the screen went back to normal, showing the sky. "Okay. That's done!" He radioed to the other jet.

 _"Okay, connection reading positive!"_ Nate replied. _"By the way, I was lying about the whole 'one more trick' thing. It may not look it, but these ships were made to fight and kill Grimm, as most of our other weapons and tactics are."_

"Huh?" I said aloud.

"What do you mean?" Aric asked, suspicion in his voice.

 _"Aric, we're not with the White Fang, anymore than you're a Grimm Corsair. Don't try to lie, man. We were good friends at the Academy. I know you fly for Beacon. I trust you, though, but I will not hesitate to shoot you down if you and those Beacon brats attempt to do the same." Nate_ said, ice in his voice.

 _We've been found out. What should we do?_ I thought _._

 _ **We-**_

 _Nope, Yang, we're not going to destroy them. We're going to follow them back to their base and kill their leaders, then hightail it outta there._

"We need to work with them to stop this threat, for now." We said to the pilot, who looked relieved at not having to fight his friend.

 ** _Shit, I would too, if I had to fight Blake!_** Yang commented.

"Okay, I'm listening..." our pilot replied. "How far out are those Grimm?" Aric asked.

 _"About 10 minutes. Damn. Look at the size of those things. Never seen a flock this big."_ Nate groaned. We all looked. There it was, a large black dot in the sky: slowly but surely getting bigger. And closer. As it got nearer, details started coming into focus. It seemed crazy, but at the center of the swarm was a huge, massive Nevermore.

As soon as it got close enough, we could tell it was a trick. The MegaGrimm _-hah, coined it-_ was pulsating.

" Guys, I think there's Grimm hidden in the-" I started to say. The bird exploded, and It began to rain Grimm.

 _"Fuck! The bastards were hidden in its shadow! Our radar couldn't pick them up! Damn, there's too many of them. Acquire targets and fire! Fire!"_ Nate yelled.

"What do we do?!"Aric asked.

"I'll hold them off for as long as possible! You should still try to aim for the big ones! After a few passes, we'll separate. Fire your Grimmbusters as well, and we need to aim for the adults.

"But what'll happen to the small ones?"

"They should scatter when the big ones are gone, they usually do. If you can't kill the big one... spin the white hoop! Falcon-3,out." Then he cut the connection.

"Alright, you heard the man!" Aric yelled, startling us. "Chrang, Ren, Blake & Brie, you're going to go surfing!" We walked out the pod, smiling, where our other teammates were waiting.

 ** _Chrang?_** Yang asked.

 _It's a_ _portmanteau of our names._ _Hey, It's better than ChriYang._ I replied.

"Nora, stay in the gun 'pod and man our weapons. Fire on my command." Aric continued

"Aye-Aye, Cap'n!" She replied back, squealing with excitement.

"Weiss, and Pyrrah, you're on safety duty up top. Weiss, keep everyone from falling. Lydia, guard them."

"Tiffany, you split the remaining bombs we have. Bring about a quarter to the top, just under the door roof hatch, then make sure we've got enough ammunition to fight them off. Tell Nora when we're running low."

I took over "Pyrrah, those explosives are your ammunition. You can throw it or shoot it through Weiss's glyphs, so long as it hits on target -which is anything that flies or moves that's not us or Falcon-3. Once you're out of explosives, head inside. Don't worry about Yang & I. We'll bag the big one." I said, smiling and cracking my knuckles. They nodded. I turned to Blake.

"Blake, you and Gambol are the only things between us and a few hours of wasted time. Please, be ready. You've been practicing something like that move, anyway, for the Vytal Festival right? On, snap. That reminds me! Anyone have any wrist-mounted weapons? and maybe a rebreather, just in case?"

"Well, we don't have any wrist mounted weapons, but guess what we found?" Brie said, reaching behind her chair and pulling out an oddly-shaped bundle wrapped in black cloth. It took Yang & I a second to place its shape, then we settled on the image of a familiarly-shaped oversized Sniper rifle.

"Crescent!" Yang & I yelled in unison, running over and hugging Brie in thanks, who sighed contentedly and got that flush on her cheeks. I could feel that she still wasn't wearing a bra.

 ** _Perv..._** Yang joked.

 _Damn, it was just an observation! what are you, The thought police?_

"It should work just as well on Big Bird over there."Yang joked, as I disentangled myself from the hug and unwrapped it. It had a good, dense weight to it. I could tell it was in Assault mode, somehow.

"Oh _God_ , Chris, she already has your sense of humor!" Lydia sighed.

Ren pulled something that looked like an inverted, wide v out of an overhead compartment and tossed it to me.

"Thanks! Positions, everyone!" I said, clapping my hands like a stage manager.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **So guys, what'd you think? How do you think we'll manage to fight the Nevermores off? Why did they gather in the first place? Whatdya think of our new ship name? I know we're not in love, but Portmanteau takes too long to type. Plus it sounds weird. Okay, for that last question, I'll give you a hint. Smoke signals...**

 **Despayre: _Hey! That's not a hint!_**

Me: _Yes it is, it's just not a very helpful one!_


	18. Chapter 15: What Goes Up

**Hey Guys! I'M SORRY FOR NOT GETTING THIS CHAPTER OUT THIS WEEK! Our internet got really messed up, and this is the first chance I've had to access FF in a while! Anyways, This is a fight chapter, so -you guessed it- it has its own theme. I do not own RWBY, Highscore, or any of the countless Animes I reference. I _do_ own (not really) Seraph, Aric, NVRMR, CBLT, VRPL, and Despayre, as well as the Jets. **

**(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 15: What Goes Up..._**

 ** _Day #04_**

 ** _June 08, 2015_**

 ** _Remnant_**

 ** _(cue Teminite & Panda Eyes- Highscore)_**

As we ascended the lift, which took up a large section in & above the cargo bay, I affixed the mask. Immediately, it started pumping air to our lungs. I flipped it off for the moment, content to conserve my air for when Yang & I would need it.

"Luke. I _am_ your father!" I rasped. Brie  & Tiffany -who looked worried- chuckled nervously, while everyone else but Lydia stared at me with a puzzled look.

"Who's Luke?" Blake questioned. "And you're too young to be anyone here's father."

 ** _Still angry, I guess_**

"Sorry, Blake. Earth-movie quote." I said, facepalming. "Radio check!" More blank looks, but the rest of CBLT began testing their mics.

" _Frickin' Idiot_ " Lydia muttered, though it was picked up on the mic and broadcast into everyone's ears. She blushed.

"I heard that." I said.

"We meant _Comm_ checks." Yang corrected me, smiling. Aboard the Jet, Aric had found a few dozen micro-transmitters, each fitting nicely inside our ears. Their controllers connected to our palms through a special glove,enabling us to switch on & off our comms.

As the roof slid back in a rectangular plate, we reached the top, wind swirling down the chamber and blowing everyone's hair around. "Wow. You two stink." Lydia noted, scrunching her nose. She was right, the smell of burnt metal, dust, and clothing permeated us, even though we had put on different clothes borrowed from the Armory. We had decided on a Blue shirt with a Brown pilot's jacket, and a pair of muted-yellow pants.

"I guess we do stink, but... well..." I stammered. Yang translated for me.

"He's still shy about seeing girls naked." She said, bluntly.

"YANG!" I yelled, blushing furiously. The crew could barely suppress their laughter, but we were close to the top of the shaft. As soon as we got up, though, we saw our oversized-crow opponents.

"Whoah! Look at the size of that thing!" Lydia gasped as Weiss & Pyrrah strapped themselves to her to keep from being sucked off the top.

"That's what she said." Yang muttered. Lydia looked down at her gun, which seemed small and insignificant in comparison to the massive horde we faced. "Uhh... How long do I have to keep these things at bay?" she asked.

"Long enough." I yelled, the wind sweeping away my voice.

"Uhh, okay..." She stammered. "You guys know what to do, right?" We questioned.

"Not really, but I can guess..." Blake said.

"Good!" I replied. The Birds were only a few dozen meters below us. "Hang on!" I yelled, knowing what was about to happen. The conjoined ships pitched into a steep dive, but my heart rose to my throat. We were headed straight into the heart of the dark mass. It was pitch black for a few minutes and we felt & heard heavy gun reports, and there was a slicing sound coming from our left. Several birds scraped over our hull with a satisfying thunk, screeching and cawing as they got a multi-ton knuckle sandwich. Then they started to regroup. I heard a whistling sound like a volley of arrows, and then Brie grunted softly, almost like a... _moan_? Reflexively, we stood up quickly to see if she was okay. We were softly buffered back down.

 _A forcefield!_ I thought. "Way to go, Brie! Keep it up!" I called out in the darkness. Moments later, we shot out of the dark cloud the smell of burnt feathers clinging to us as tightly as we were. We regained altitude once more as we sped up to come around for another pass.

"Nate says the birds are clogging up the wires faster then he thought." Aric said into the comms.

"Alright troops, you know what this means! Lydia? You ready?"

She nodded, taking a large box from the back of her armor and clamping it to the deck. She knelt down and replaced the regular cartridge with one with a wire sticking out of the bottom. This wire was long, and flexible, but it was thick. It trailed down into the box.

"Weiss, Pyrrah, you strapped down?"

Same curt nods.

 ** _Oh so it's_** **that** ** _kind of party?_**

 _Shut up, Yang..._

"Everyone else?" I said

"Yep! This train's ready to bring the pain!" Brie said, cracking her knuckles.

"No. Just, no... Let's limit the punnery to Yang & I, please." Yang said, shaking my head.

"As if _that's_ any better." Both Lydia _and_ Weiss muttered in unison, each glancing around to see who else had said it, much to our enjoyment.

"Alright gals -and Ren- let's... Go!" I yelled, taking a giant leap off of the side of the ship, and the others followed suit.

The four of us plummeted for a few seconds, each finding our balance, then angling towards a different Grimm. Ren took his out first, slicing it from neck to tail with Stormflower as he slid down its back, leaping off onto his next target. Brie was the next, impaling an adult with her Khopesh, and firing a round directly into its head before grabbing at a passing pair of talons and kicking away at the now-dead corpse. Her shirt hiked up above her stomach, caught just before-

 ** _Stop ogling your teammate, perv!_** Yang noticed, as I forgot we shared the same eyes.

 _Right, sorry._ I thought. We were using Crescent Rose to slice several of the smaller Grimm, bouncing off their corpses like light off a mirror from the recoil as we made our way towards the bigger one. Looking beside us, Blake was strangling one with Gambol's ribbon wrapped around her wrists while simultaneously firing her pistol at another and slicing her scabbard across the belly of another one.

"On your left!" She yelled, throwing her scabbard like a boomerang and burying it in the bird's face. She leapt past us and, using the tied bird as a weight, swung past and grabbed the handle, wrenching it loose. Then she laid let go of the other end, landing on the dead bird's back and spread its wings like a kite, grabbing fistfuls of feathers. She dove downwards, slicing two Nevermores with her blades and, tying herself down, made the bird spin like a top, pulverizing anything that got near her. Feathers flew everywhere, and I heard Brie cry out in pain.

Instantly, Yang & I switched our attention from the bird. I paused, hanging onto a neck, frantically searching for our friend.

 ** _There! Over by the Big one_**! My heart almost stopped. She had lost her balance, and she was now plummeting Remnantwards with a Footlong barb protruding from her shoulder!

 ** _"_** _BRIE_ _ **!"**_ I yelled.

 ** _FOCUS!_** Yang intoned and her joy overtook my worry, **_S_ _ **he'll** be fine! That's what Weiss is for_** ** _!_**

Sure enough, a single glyph appeared, slinging the motionless faunas into the air again before an angled one bounced her onto the ship

 ** _We're only 50 feet away!_**

 ** _"Blake, Now!"_** We yelled. She heard us, and, pulling out of her dive, got as close as she could, then threw us one end of Gambol's ribbon, which we grabbed.

Gathering our energy, we leapt downwards, directly towards the big bird!

 ** _"I! HOPE! YOU'RE! HUNGRY!"_** We yelled, activating Super SaiYang and firing Crescent behind us to accelerate. I'm sure the bird saw us, as it rose to meet us, beak wide open, a piercing shriek flying from it maw. We impacted second later, shooting down its throat, burning it from the inside out.

Plunging into its stomach, we ignited the volatile gases inside. The fireball raced up and out through its throat, and I felt a pang of sorrow for the way I had doomed this animal.

 ** _Don't. They'd do this to us if they had the chance._** Yang replied, brutally.

 _Damn, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning! I joked._ _Oh, wait. You -we- actually did... what's wrong, Yang? You've gone all silent on me._ We were pressed up against the slick, inner lining, and I flipped the switch on the filter, letting oxygen flow to our lungs. It was strangely quiet. No _THUMP-THUMP_ of a heartbeat, no thoughts running through our brain. Just... silence.

 ** _Yang?_ **

_What the hell?_ I thought, as we were jostled around in the darkness, bumping as the slain carcass fell from the sky.

 ** _Guess that plan didn't work very well, eh?_** Yang ruefully chuckled.

 _Hey, it would've worked, but we accidentally let go of Gambol on the way in!_ I retorted.

 ** _I wonder how the battle's going._** Yang inwardly pouted, annoyed that she wasn't kickin' ass and takin' names, plus my revelation of her past. **_How long are we stuck in this thing again?_** She- we- let out a groan.

' _til the corpse dissolves. You know that. You just wanna do something, don't you._ I shot back.

 ** _Shut up._** She replied. _**But what do we do if we're not above land?**_

 _Uhh...Shit. I didn't think of that. I'm sure we'll be fine... we have the mask?_

 _THUD!_

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **Soo... was my absence sorely missed? Anyways, next chapter, we take a... strange... visit back to Earth.**

 **See you then!**


	19. Chapter 16: Out of the Flying Pan

_**Hey guys! I'm back (for now)! My internet is kinda fluctuating, and I'm at my library uploading this. I know it's been a while, but I think I'll be able to upload two chapters today. Also, I'm going to warn you now, this chapter is a little embarrassing. You'll see Chris act like a little bitch, mostly. I'm putting my flame-resistant gear on, because this mini chapter is kinda bad.**_

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 ** _Chapter 15: What Goes Up..._**

 ** _Day #04_**

 ** _June 08, 2015_**

 ** _Remnant_**

 _We were slammed face first into the gizzard's opposite wall._

 ** _OW! The Fuck was that?_** Yang shouted, pushing us away from the musky, disgusting wall.

 _"_ That, I believe," I said, brushing us off, "was us colliding with the ground."

 ** _Ugh... Now I have to wait for all of this crap to evaporate?_** Yang groaned again.

 _Basically…_ I replied.

thump

 _Wait... What's that noise?_ I said. It was then I noticed that our comlink was down.

 _Thump,_

 _I thought Grimm didn't have hearts!_ I groaned, heart rate increasing

 _THUmp,_

 ** _They don't and even if they did, this bird's heartbeat would've long been stopped by now._** Yang replied. The bird began to shudder, and the intensity of the THUMPs was rising in parallel to my heart.

 _Thumpthumpthump._

 _Oh shit, are those feet!?_ All of a sudden, we were once again tossed as the bird was thrown aside by something… no… Some _things_

 _Y-yang? Did I ever tell you I hate suspense?_ As if an answer to my thought, we heard a loud howl outside.

 _AWROOO_

The sound sent shivers down my spine. _Was that a…_

 ** _Bewoulf. Definitely a Beowulf._** Yang said.

 _Shit. did I ever tell you..._

 _ **you're afraid of**_ ** _everything but actually fighting? Yeah, I kinda noticed._** Yang replied

 _Double shit quadruple shit quint..._

I was hyperventilating now. Claustrophobia was one of my many fears.

 ** _Whoah_** , **_Chris, calm down._** Yang warned. I could feel the panic behind the thoughts, but whether it was me or her, I couldn't tell.

The howl outside was joined by a chorus of others'

 ** _We're gonna be fine…_** Yang tried to keep upbeat, but my paralyzing fear was getting the best of us.

We sank down, cowering against the charred walls in fear, ripping off the restrictive mask and filling my nostrils with the stench of charred flesh. It didn't help at all. I imagined my funeral. It would _definitely_ be closed-casket.

 _Ohnoohnoohno. I can't die like this!_ I whined. My blood was running cold.

 ** _QUIET!_** Yang forced herself onto me, and my body felt... hollow inside, like something had just snapped, and I felt myself falling and accepted the cold embrace of darkness...

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **Soo, How'd you like this chapter? I know its pretty bad (and short), but I kinda wanted this to happen to show what happens when Crang gets in a brain tussle. I hope you're enjoying this! it was kinda hard for me to write a nervous breakdown.**


	20. Chapter 17: The Feels Awakens

**Hey! I won't give up on this story (but if I do, I'll likely change it to complete), I've just been unable to upload chapters. Anyways, Hope you all had a nice Christmas/New Years! in this chapter (an extremely long one), we get to see some Yang/Chrys interaction** _ **outside**_ **of the land of Remnant, as well as the reveal of Chrys's adventures to the worst possible candidates.** **This chapter is a bit long, as it's partly exposition, so you can skip to the header that says (Later that day), and you won't miss a lot. I felt as if I jipped y'all with the last chapter, but that was only because I expected to have this chapter finished the same day. As you can see, that was a REALLY lofty goal.** **I REALLY wanted to do a Christmas chapter, but that might come later. It _is_ June, after all. I know you've all been waiting for this chapter for a long time, but I've recently become an Uncle, so you can see where a lot of my time is going.** **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing but the teams of CBLT, NVRMR (We encountered them a few chapters ago -and yes, I know it's five letters-Hint Hint), VORPL(who'll be introduced in the next chapter, finally) and some other groups and stuff.**

 **Roosterteeth owns just about everything else, and when I place theme music, I name the artist(s)**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 17: The Feels Awakens**

 ** _Day #5_**

 ** _June 09, 2015_**

 ** _Earth_**

I was yanked - **Yanged** \- back awake. A split second later, Yang did the same. As I came to, a dull throbbing in my skull hastily rose to a deafening crescendo. I groaned, and we had the worst headache ever. I roiled around in the bed, screaming in pain. This was the worst pain I had ever experienced! Yang and I fell off the bed, and she landed atop me, convulsing in pain. I was too absorbed in my own to even notice the way she squirmed on top of me... We both laid there, moaning and crying as waves of pain coursed through every neuron of our bodies until we had no more tears to give. She came out of it quicker, pulling me close as if we hadn't been at each other's throats 48 hours earlier. _Was she... comforting me?_ The world began to shiver, like there was an earthquake, and I felt a strangle sense of peace, like I was floating away, yet couldn't leave...

I came to my senses a few minutes later, face cushioned in between a pair of beautifully long legs. My eyes roamed upwards, traversing a smooth, exposed stomach, pausing at well-defined abs. Roaming still higher, I reached a beautiful pair of hills that obscured my comforters' face, rising and falling in shallow gasps. _Who am I? Who is that?_ I gasped, then shut my mouth. _I've seen this happen in TV shows before_. I thought to myself. _The best thing to do is to try not to touch her boobs..._ the name was on tip of my tongue, but it was as if someone was plucking the words right out. I sat up, a bit woozy from the pain.

"Oh, you're awake. You're also heavy as hell." A voice muttered. I sat up, groaning, and turned around to get a full glimpse of my savior. I was back to my normal self; I knew that much. So was she. She shifted, and huge golden locks- did she always have her hair like this? - fell away from her face, exposing her eyes. _YANG_.

Instantly, it all came back to me: Ruby, Weiss, Pyrrah, Seraph, and all of the others. I felt sick. Was I just checking out, no _ogling_ my crush's Sister?

 ** _Well,_ half _-sister,_**

 _YOU GET THE POINT, HOPE! Wait, Hope?_

 ** _No, the other voice in your head!_**

 _Huh_? "Oh, hey, Yang. What are you doing?" I asked. She looked around sheepishly.

"Honestly, I don't know. All I know is that I saw you in pain, and something made me want to comfort you. But don't take that the wrong way." She said, quietly. She shifted her hands to massage her temples. "What do you think happened?" She whispered.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember; you were trying to calm me down after… after I heard the Beowolves." I stammered out. _Damn, my head hurts_. "Stay here, Yang. I'll be right back." I was never one to pop pills, but this was a whole new level of hurt. "Where are you going?" Yang groaned.

"To get some aspirin!" I said as I crawled over to the door, ignoring Yang's quizzical look, and unlocked it and stepped out. I clumsily made my way downstairs, leaning on the railing for support. I made it downstairs, but my head was still throbbing from the ordeal. Nevertheless, after a few minutes, I reached the medicine cabinet, poured out a pair, then -rethinking it- grabbed the whole bottle. Taking two myself, I reached over and pulled out a pair of water bottles from the fridge- I knew I'd spill the water on the trek back upstairs if I used cups- I sat down and contemplated my fate. It was near morning, and if I didn't get back upstairs soon, we'd get caught once my mom came to wake me up. If only there was a way to hide Yang until my parents left for work... I racked my brain for any other option, but I kept coming to the same conclusion.

Re-ascending the stairs, I made my way to my room, where my phone was vibrating next to Yang's head. Her eyes were closed, and she had a pained, yet peaceful look on her face. For some reason, she had assumed dominance of the bed, and she was sprawled across it, face framed by the golden halo of her hair. I smiled. Sleep as a baby, and just as cute. _Why am I having these feelings towards her?_ I mused, forcing myself to not stroke her hair as I sat down next to her on the bed. _Is it because of our 'connection' back on Remnant? Or am I -_ gasp _\- actually developing feelings for that_ _blonde fireball?_

"Eh, it's too early to think of that." I said, speaking aloud, noticing the time as I saw the light in the sky. I contemplated waking her up to give her the pills, but another, more welcome, thought passed through my mind: _What on Earth is she doing with our body on the other side? I guess I'll find out soon enough._ We were had been surrounded by Beowolves, after all.

 _What happened to me back there?_ I thought, feeling _really_ embarrassed. I had never panicked like that before. I didn't even know I was claustrophobic. I guess it just needed a certain scenario to trigger it. _Whatever the case, I'm sure she'll be fine._

 _Wait- what? My phone is ringing? Shit!_ I reached over and grabbed my phone. It was just an alarm. I breathed a sigh of relief. Damn, summer is good. But first things first. My phone could wait, but my family couldn't.

Retracing my steps, I knocked on my mom's door, then stepped in. She was just waking up. "You okay, 'lax?" She said. "I heard you screaming earlier, and I think you might've fallen out of your bed."

"Yeah, mom, I think I did."

"Are you okay?" She said, rolling over.

"Yeah, I am. I just have a bit of a problem." She nodded, indicating me to continue. "I uh… well… I've been… well… I have something to share with you." I said. _Alright, let's get this over with._ I thought.

"What?" She asked, sitting up with a serious look on her face.

"Well, you know how I've been acting strange this past week?" she nodded, and I continued. "I think I discovered an alternate dimension, or world, or something in my sleep." I cringed at how absurd the words sounded. My mom looked puzzled for a moment, then she burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" I said, stunned by her reaction.

"I thought-" she paused to catch her breath "I thought you were gonna say you'd been doing drugs, or gotten someone pregnant, or something of that magnitude! Not _this_." She continued laughing.

"Wha- No, mom, I haven't been doing drugs. What even made you think that?" I laughed too, glad to be free of my burden. I thought this'd be way harder.

"But why are you telling me this now?" She said, sobering up. _Dammit, why do my parents have to be smarter than me?_

"Well, I kind of don't have an option, anymore."

"What do you mean, 'an option'? Moreover, tell me about this 'world'."

"Well, the world is called 'Remnant'." My mother held up her hand.

"Why's it called that?"

"Honestly, I don't know. My theory is that they are referring to what's left." My mom gave me a look that said _what's left of what?_ "Oh, sorry. Humankind. Though, they really shouldn't call it that, as they're not in any danger of extinction. In the beginning, they were constantly under attack by shadowy creatures called 'Grimm', forcing them into hiding, but thousands of years ago, they discovered a way to beat them."

"They're a highly advanced race. They possess advanced technologies, but this is mostly due to the powerful material know as Dust. It... It's hard to explain. The closest we could come up with was gasoline."

"What do you mean, _'we'_? Are there others like you?"

"Yes. There's at least 4 of us, but I don't know if there are more. Lots of people look and act like humans, with a few differences. There's also another race that inhabits the land, but they have different animalistic qualities: some have tails, others have rabbit ears, and so on and so forth. But the key difference between us and inhabitants of Remnant is the fact that they all have a sort of shield to protect them. It's transparent, but it wraps around them like a forcefield. The call it 'Aura'"

"Anything else?" She deadpanned.

"Oh, yeah! They have weird abilities. I know a person who can manipulate metals weapons, and one who can create statues of herself."

"Do _you_ have any powers?"

"Oh. Yeah! I can absorb energy, and I've also been able to read minds a few times!" I said, excitedly.

"So, this is all well and good, but I also asked why are you telling me now? Did something happen?" _Dammit, I had to get my smarts from somewhere…_

"Well, actually, a lot of things happened. I'll tell you later, but I need to show you something first."

I motioned for her to follow me, quietly. I didn't want any of my siblings to wake up. As we got to the room, I silently prayed that Yang wasn't in any compromising position. My mom looked startled.

"This" I gestured towards the bed "is Yang Xiao Long. My... partner."

"Wha...?" There are only a few times in my entire life that I have seen my mother speechless.

"Don't worry," I said, walking over "She's out cold." Giving her a solid slap on the thigh to prove my point, the quick movement brought a sharp pain to my skull, reminding me of my headache. I turned around to face her again, rubbing my head with a sheepish grin. "See? Perfectly harmless!"

"Don't do that! That's wholly inappropriate. Did you kidnap her?" My mom had finally found her tongue.

"Don't do what?" Yang said from behind me, sitting up, then curling back into a ball in pain.

"Ah, Yang. You're back. Meet my mom." I said, giving her the Aspirin without turning back around.

"Hey. The name's Yang. I like to start my semeMFGH." I placed a hand over her mouth.

"She's the jokester of the group." I said before Yang threw my hand off and kicked me away.

"Hello Mrs.…" She said, extending her hand.

"Evans. Laurel Evans. Now, _what are you doing in my son's bed?_ "

"Wait, 'Lax didn't tell you? I'm sorry Mrs. Evans. This is the one time I can say that it's not what it looks like."

"WHAT!?"

"Hold up, mom. I can explain!"

 **(An hour later)**

"So you're telling me you are part of a paramilitary organization called Beacon?"

"Yeah, and it's great! We get to fight Grimm _and_ kick ass!" Yang stated in triumph, while I cringed.

"Here Yang, have some more oatmeal." I slid her a bowl (her fourth) to distract her.

"And you," She said, looking at me with her piercing eyes "just happened to join this… academy? Without consulting us?"

 _Crap, I knew I forgot something!_

"Hehehe" I laughed nervously "I was gonna tell you at _some_ point…" I muttered. Yang kicked me under the table where we were sitting.

" What he means to say is that he was really excited about joining Beacon, but the fact that a certain _half-sister_ of mines attends was the cherry on top." Yang was already finished.

"Hmm?" My mom raised her eyebrows, and the corner of her mouth curled up in a tiny smile.

"Mom, it's not even like that!" I was embarrassed as hell.

"Hmm… I don't know, you certainly have a habit letting your crushes -at least the few you've had- decide where you want to go…" Yang, who had been smiling the entire time, burst into laughter.

"Don't put it like that, mom. You'll make me seem like a stalker…" I groaned, as I heard several thumps upstairs as her laughter echoed through the house, rousing everyone from their sleep.

"Quick, Yang. Out the garage!" I hissed shooing her away from the table.

"Why?" She said, hesitating.

"Just go! They'll tease me forever if they find out about this! Meet me at the shed!" I said, reddening.

"Umm… Okay?" She said. She opened the window and jumped out before my mom and I could stop her. I heard a sharp cry, and I looked down. She was on the ground, and I hoped she only had a sprained ankle. Fortunately, this seemed to be the case, as she glared up at me, flipped me off, and hobbled/stormed into the shed, slamming it shut behind her so hard the door broke off its rusty hinges. She turned, impaling me with her eyes before she pulled it shut.

Satisfied, I turned to greet my siblings. It was the start of a brand-new day!

 **(Later that day)**

After breakfast, I said I was going out to cut the grass, though I intended to check on Yang first. My mom looked at me, amusedly.

"Going to check on the shed?" She smiled, shaking her head.

"Yeah, I'll be back in a few hours." As I was going out, she tossed me a bag of chips. _For Yang._ She mouthed. I chuckled. "You like her, don't you?" I said, grinning as I left.

I walked outside, eager to speak to Yang, but when I got there, I didn't see her. _I wonder where she went…_

"Hey! You. Up here!" she called out.

 _What the heck?_

She was in a Pine tree, waving at me from the thinnest branches that could support her weight.

"Yang?" I called up, stupefied.

"What?" She replied, straddling the branch she was standing on.

"Get down from there!" I said _. How the fuck did she get up there?_

"Huh? I can't hear you!" She said, cupping her ears and sliding off so that she was now hanging upside down and wrapping her legs around the branch. My heartbeat increased -though I couldn't tell if it was from concern... or the fact that my shirt was hiked up around her chest and earlier, I hadn't had a bra to give her.

"You'll get yourself killed!" I almost yelled up, stopping myself just in time. "You know things are _different_ here. You could get hurt!"

"Uhh, news flash: you can get hurt in Remnant, too! That's what Aura is for! The only difference is the gravity of the situation" she teased.

"Uhh, Yang, I don't know if you noticed, but Aura doesn't work here!" I replied. She kept on swinging, and a small white object slid out of her pocket. My shirt kept getting closer. My heartbeat kept rising- _definitely_ a mixture of both concern and lust. "Get down. Now." I commanded, catching the rectangle as it fell.

"Toss me your Scroll!" she called, as if she was ignoring me. She was patting herself down in search of something.

"We don't have Scrolls here. We use 'cellphones', which are about the same, just smaller." I replied, tossing her my phone as I pocketed the white object. She caught it, causing the branch to precariously sway back and forth.

"Yang…" I warned. She fidgeted with it for a bit, trying different angles and poses before settling on sticking her tongue out, flashing a peace sign, and winking.

"Aaand… Done! The folks at Beacon will never believe me 'til I show 'em this!" she called down, smiling. Until she noticed the state of her attire in the picture. She glared at me, tucking her shirt in before retaking the photo.

"Okay, are you done? I'd _really_ appreciate it if you would come down now." I replied, anxiously wringing my hands together.

"Oohhh, you're no fun!" she pouted as she flipped back onto the branch -with effort- and started shimmying down like a squirrel. Halfway down, she paused, and looked at me nervously, a blush spreading across her face. "Hey, loverboy. Get up here."

"What" I started to say, but she impaled me, once again, with that steely gaze that said _shut up and just do what I say._ "Uhh... okay?" I took a few steps to my right, so I could see her better, then I burst into laughter.

"It's not funny!" Yang fumed. While crawling down, her voluminous mane had become entangled in the thick branches, so she was now stuck. She couldn't even untangle it because her hands were grasping the tree trunk. I was on the ground, now. _This situation is just too funny._ I had a horrible idea. "I'll be right back, Yang!" I managed to eke out through my laughter as I stood up. _This is_ too _messed up, but I'm gonna do it!_ I thought, evilly.

"Where the _hell_ are you going!?" She demanded, furious.

"To get my climbing shoes. Yang. I'm wearing slippers." _Bad habits come in handy, don't they mom? I_ thought, referring to a past lecture. "I'll be back before you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

"Supercali-what now?" She said. I ignored her, and -running inside- grabbed my camera and came back out.

"You still there, Yang?" I called up, smiling.

"Where fuckin' else would I be, ya little piece of Shit!" She growled, trying to murder me with her eyes.

"Smile for the camera, Yang." I said as she glared sourly at me as I took a picture. "Okay, that's done..." I said, mounting the tree and placing a foot in the fork about five feet off the ground. Cautiously, I made my way up to her. She was about 15 feet up, and her face was beet red with either anger or embarrassment. I climbed past her, then stepped over her and sat on a limb near where her hair was caught. "Damn." I whistled. "You really got it tangled up back here." She climbed as close as she could to lessen the tension on her scalp.

"Wow, Yang, your hair is soft!" I said, complementing her as I untangled her hair.

"Thanks." She muttered, back towards me as I picked out the golden strands. Once I had them undone, I gathered the ends and braided them. "What are you doing back there?" She gasped in surprise, feeling my hands gently tugging at her hair.

"Nothing. Just braiding your hair so it doesn't get stuck again." She paused, pondering something for a moment, as I continued my task.

"Wait a second…" she said, head shooting up "When did _you_ learn to braid hair?"

"From my sister. I've only had to do it a few times, but it's a good skill to have when untangling friends from trees." I joked. "There. Done. Now, finish getting down." She pushed off my branch, sliding down the trunk like a fireman. Unfortunately, she pushed off the branch a little too hard, and it started bobbing wildly. Normally, said branch would've _just_ wobbled, but with 200 additional pounds on it, it didn't. It broke and -with the aid of gravity- sent me downwards. I'm fairly sure I felt a tooth knocked out as I bounced from branch to branch, and it was a miracle I didn't bite my tongue off! "YAANG!" I yelped as I fell past her and hit the ground on my back. I felt the wind get knocked out of me.

I laid there for a few moments, catching my breath as I silently prayed that I hadn't broken anything. I moved my limbs, testing them. It definitely _hurt_ , but it didn't feel like anything was broken. I heard laughter coming from my right, and I looked over. Yang was rolling around in the grass, laughing her ass off.

"Ow." I groaned. Yang looked at me, getting up and, placing her hands on her hips, jokingly tapped me with her foot.

"You alive, bro?" She said, smiling down at me. I was in too much pain to see the humor in the situation.

"What's so Damn funny?" I grumbled, sitting up on my elbows.

"Well, this _is_ the third time this week you've fallen out of the sky, isn't it?" She said. Laughter dying down to a soft chuckle, she extended her hand to help me up and the rectangle slipped out of my pocket.

"Gee, thanks." I said, sarcastically as I stood up on weak legs. I pitched forwards into Yang, and she caught me by the shoulders, stopping me from knocking her over.

"You're very welcome. Honestly, I thought my friends' savior would be a little stronger." She groaned. "What's this?" She said, shifting my weight in her grip so she could bend over to pick it up. "Why is everything so damn heavy here, anyways?" She said, standing up and grunting in exertion as she threw my arm across her shoulders again.

"Well, maybe our gravity is much higher here. We do have a bigger planet, anyways." I offered as an answer.

"hmmm... is this a scroll?" She said, studying the rectangle.

"Oh. I guess it is." I said, remembering where it came from. She pocketed the scroll, and I could see the gears turning in her head. "But if I start working out here, will I eventually be stronger on Remnant?" She said excitedly, flexing her muscles.

"Let's test that theory later. What'd you see when you went back? To Remnant, I mean." I said, realizing that I had never given her the chips. "By the way, here." I said, pulling a smashed, popped potato chip bag from my pocket.

"Aww... you shouldn't have..." she deadpanned, though she took it anyways.

"Don't blame me for helping you out!" I countered.

"Anyways, the situation hasn't changed much. We've still got a while 'til the Grimm dissolves, and the Beowolves can't smell us over the Nevermores' scent. I think they could only hear us inside. I heard several muffled _BOOMS_ , and several small _thuds_ , which I think are dead Nevermores hitting the surface. I tried going SSC to burn us out, but I couldn't control your semblance. We shut down, quickly. Then, I felt something hit my thigh. I most definitely did _not_ jump. I looked around, but there wasn't anything else alive with me in there. I had hit a mound of bones. Dammit, Chris, I've never seen so many! There were at least 30 skeletons. I… got sick, then I got a little woozy and passed out."

"I… I think that might have been my doing. I slapped your thigh right before you woke up. I thought you wouldn't notice."

"Chrysophylax Stevens! That was too far. What else were you doing to me while I was sleep?" She demanded, dropping me to the ground.

"Ow! Chill out! It wasn't even like that. I was demonstrating to my mom how harmless you were!" I pleaded.

"Harmless? I'll show you harmless!" She grunted, and I could see all of her muscles tensing.

 _Oh, shit..._ I thought, preparing for the end as she leapt forwards…

Only to fall on her face in a cloud of dust.

"Dammit, I forgot semblance doesn't work here... Nor does gravity..." She mumbled into the ground, getting up and brushing the dust off.

"Well, we can't all have superpowers..." I said, pointing a finger in her direction. "Nor huge masses of hair. That's why you had a much worse headache than I did. Your hair's too heavy." I said. "Wait. How'd you climb that tree?" I asked, realizing something.

She muttered something about super-strength, but I knew that was a lie. "You just didn't wanna give up, did you?" I smiled. She blushed faintly, and I almost missed it. "Here. Take these," I tossed her a set of keys "and open the garage." Her eyes lit up.

"Are we gonna go biking? Do you have motorcycles?" She asked.

"Nope." I said, dusting myself off and standing up. "The next best thing!"

 ** _(One hour later.)_**

"This is not at _all_ what I was thinking, Chris." Yang stared out the window as we passed the 10th farm on our way to my favorite park. It had taken a lot of convincing, but she let me drive.

"What _were_ you thinking?" I smiled.

"Not this." She spread her arms in the backseat of my van.

"Hey! It's a nice ride!" I said, offended, as I turned the van onto a dirt road leading into a forest.

"It's not a _motorcycle_!" she countered.

"Hey, I don't have a license for those! And do you really think you'd wanna have to wrap your arms around my waist for _any_ extended period of time?" I said, taking another hard right to punctuate my sentence.

"Nope!" Yang said, bumping into the window. "Now _you_ on the other hand..." she started, smiling mischievously. I ignored her, but I was smiling a bit, too -though for completely different reasons. I slammed the brakes, and she tumbled into the front. She obviously hadn't worn a seatbelt before.

"Not. Funny." She ground out.

"We're here!" I yelled into the now-deserted backseat. "Oh. Yang. How'd you get up here?" I looked down at her and acted as if it was an accident. "I thought you were wearing your seatbelt. Not my fault." I smiled, leaning past her to open up the passenger door.

"What _is_ this place?" Yang said, looking around and seeing nothing but the dominating ridge stretching from east to west in front of us.

"Something I wanted to show Ruby, but I didn't know how. Now that we have a Scroll, it might get caught in whatever links us to Remnant. By the way, there's no Grimm anywhere on the planet." I said.

"Whoa... what are you doing?" She warily as I grabbed her wrist and led her towards the ridge. Memories of plans flooded my mind. I had wanted to show this place to Ruby, but I guessed this was the next best thing. "Yang, take footage of this with your scroll. It's for Ruby, once we find her. I want her to know we tried our damndest to get to her." I blushed slightly, mentally preparing myself for the ordeal ahead of me.

"Aww... that's so sweet!" She cooed.

"Shut up Yang..." I groaned. "and if you tell anyone about this, I'll..." I couldn't really think of a good threat " well; I won't do anything... but tell the teams about your subscription to Playfaunus." I really needed this to be kept a secret.

"Whoa whoa whoa, who said anything about sharing secrets? Not me. I'm 100% trustworthy!" She said, earnestly nodding her head in agreement.

"Okay, then, here we go..." I let go of her arm and motioned her to follow me up the ridge. "Try not to drop the camera!" I reached the top of the ridge before her, as she was struggling up the hill due to our gravity. I pulled out my camera and turned around, videotaping her as she tried to make it up to the top. Finally, she crested the top of the ridge, and her jaw dropped open, though -true to her word- she didn't drop the camera.

We were a hundred feet up, so we had an excellent view. Mighty oak and pine trees dominated the view for miles but parted in the middle, allowing for a huge river to pour out from what seemed to be right below us.

"Whoa. That's… beautiful!" She finally managed.

"I know."

I turned to face the camera. "Hi Ruby. If I show you this, then you're probably out of prison, but I hope you know..." I was only moments into the video, but I was already embarrassed. "I hope you know... that I'm still doing everything I can to save you. We'll meet again, and soon. I'm counting the days until I see your smile again, and, well, I guess... I guess I can say the rest once I see you again. I've only known you a few days, but still, I'm looking for you. _We're_ looking for you. We've Be easy on me once you see this video, okay? I only have my eyes closed because Yang's doing the taping, and I'm trying to ignore her. By the way, This," I said, indicating the scenery "is Earth. Pretty cool, huh? Of course, this is one of the nicer parts, but all worlds are like this. In other news..." I went on to describe the events that had transpired in the past couple days. Yang had to sit down. I decided to end the message "Anyway, I've never actually had to do one of these things. So... Bye. I mean, see you?" I motioned for Yang to cut the film.

"Aww, that was nice of you!" Yang teased, good-naturedly.

"Shut up..." I flushed, before thinking about something. "What if…"

"She's already dead?" Yang finished sadly. "Then we'll kick Despayre's ass in a brutal way. _Together_. She's my sister. I love her too. I simply refuse to dwell on that possibility. I can't do anything about it right now, so why worry? Besides," she said, clenching her fists "Despayre needs her alive to bait you. He might injure her, but he probably won't kill her." She smiled ruefully. "I don't know if Jaune was just in the right place at the wrong time, or..." She paused,

"Or what?"

"Jaune's a nobody, and he doesn't really factor in, unless Despayre wants team leaders, though I doubt that." She mused.

"Maybe he wanted all of us, but we all got away except for them?" I said. "That would explain the bombing. No better way to distract someone than with a bomb, though, I do remember him saying that his sole goal was to torture me."

"Who _does_ that?" She growled, clenching her fists even harder "I mean, sure. I get he _hates_ you, but why? He hasn't even met you yet, has he? How'd he even know about you? It's not like you were in the school paper."

"That can mean one of two things: he either has an informant in the Academy, or he has access to Beacon's records."

"Well, I guess it wouldn't be too hard to get into our records. It's been done before. This year's dance."

"Oh yeah, Ruby... told... me about that. Someone broke in and stole something. She managed to fight the person off, but they just _disappeared_."

"Well, you weren't on the roster then. Heck, you weren't even on _Remnant_. Nor was Despayre, probably. But still, someone else could've done it, for different reasons. Someone working for Roman, or even Roman himself, though I doubt the latter. Maybe we have an informant as well as a hacker. But who?" She said, knuckles white.

"What if it's the same person? They never got caught, did they?" I said, causing her to unclench her fists and let loose a breath.

"I guess we'll add that to the list of questions that needs to be answered."

"I guess we know where to start, don't we?" She smiled, standing up and offering her hand to help me stand up. The sunlight shone through her hair, illuminating it and turning it into a golden aura that hung below her waist. "Hold that pose, Yang! I wanna remember this moment!" I said, pulling out my camera.

"Hmm?" Yang said, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

"You, helping me and not trying to kill me like last time." I smirked, clicking the shutter button.

"Hey, remember, those two-"

"Three." I interrupted.

"Okay, those _three_ instances were justified." She said smugly, crossing her arms "C'mon. Let's go home."

The drive back was pretty uneventful, though I stopped at a Drive-through to pick us up some lunch. Yang _really_ enjoyed the food, but she reminded me how I had originally come out to cut the grass, and I better get to doing so. I then reminded _her_ that we might wake up in the middle of a battle with the Grimm, as our bird should've dissolved by now. We drove past a flock of Turkey vultures, pecking at the remains of some dead creature.

"I wonder why all those Grim were in the sky anyways…" Yang mused aloud.

"Didn't Professor Oobleck say something about them being attracted to negative feelings?" I replied "Maybe they're gathering in the wake of the bombing." Yang bit her lip.

"That would mean the situation's a whole lot worse than we thought." she said, sadly. "I think... I think we should get back to Beacon. They need our help." I nodded, and my thoughts turned back to Ruby.

"I agree, but I know every moment we don't save Ruby is a moment Despayre's doing..." I trailed off. "I know. She's strong in battle, but... well, I don't know how to proceed. We need to rescuse her. He's gonna... torture her until we stop him or save her." A single tear rolled down my cheek.

"I know. He wants you, and until he gets you, he'll have Ruby." Yang said, softly.

 _It's all my fault, really_

"ARRGH!" I groaned, slamming the steering wheel, causing the horn to blare. "But how? _HOW_ did he know what Ruby meant to me!?" I yelled at no one in particular. Then my brain went into hyperdrive mode, ideas spiraling and forming faster than I could catch them. This has only happened a few times, and it's never good. I think it's my mind is trying to process too much information at a time. The first time it happened was during the fight with Despayre. It ended with me feeling really tired and worn at the end. I came to a conclusion. "Yang, we have an informant. There's _No_ other way Despayre could've known. I was only at Beacon for a few days."

"Hmm... that'd explain how they knew about you." Yang added.

We reached my house, and I pulled into the driveway.

"I have to admit, it's nice to have someone to bounce my ideas off of." I said, wistfully, feeling the aftereffects . Yang softly punched me in the shoulder.

"Aww, thanks!" She joked.

As we made our way to the front door, I had an idea. "Yang, why don't you introduce yourself to the rest of my family? You can be a visiting friend from Texas."

"Texas? Where's that?"

"Texas. It's a state." blank stare "of This country." I said, ringing the doorbell.

My father opened the door.

"Hello? Oh, hey, CB. Who's your friend here?" He greeted us.

"SeaBee?" Yang chuckled, and I cleared my throat. "Oh, yes. My name is Yang! I met Sea-" I elbowed her ribs "I mean, Chrys, at camp..." she faked a cough

"We met at Camp Barret last year, but I haven't spoken to her since. She just recently moved here, but she doesn't know anyone in the area, so she agreed to let me introduce her to some people tomorrow." I said, stepping past him and into the house. "I'll talk to you later, dad. Send Johnny up in a couple of hours to get us for dinner, please."

"Hold on, what are you gonna do upstairs?" He said, suspicious.

"We're gonna catch up. It's been a year, dad." I answered.

"Oh, okay. 'Catch up'." He replied, sarcastically curling his fingers into air quotes I rolled my eyes and led Yang upstairs.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 ** _There. It's done. it's uploaded. A big chapter of nothing but peace, for once. There was a fair bit of angst, but Chrys is finally being forced to deal with it, instead of leaping from one adrenaline rush to the next. He and Yang were forced to get to hang out, and I liked that idea of them as good friends, rather than holding a grudge. I will definitely explain the whole one-sided romance thing with her, but I'll save that for later, as well as why Yang was acting Out of Character in the beginning._**

 ** _Also, does anyone like the new art better than the older version? I'm not slighting Monty(RIP), but does anyone else remember Vol 1's blank background shadows used to represent any non-central character? I don't know if it's because I've been busy, or what, but I finally got around to watching Episode 3, and the animation is excellent! Of course, it gets better each season as everyone gets better at doing it- AAND I'm rambling. Sorry guys! Next chapter goes up soon!_**


	21. Chapter 18: Mirthful Combat

**_Hey guys! sorry for the long wait (again). It's just that I'm struggling with what I want to do with the story. Some of the events will leave major scars on our Characters, and I'm kinda mad that I can't use some of their new abilities just yet. Don't worry, though. Once I finish this arc, I'll start making use of some of the vast materiel Vol. 3 has provided us with (A similar Vytal festival, though it'll end differently), the Prophecy of the Maidens, etc. My characters(if they survive) will be interacting with more of the outer fringes of the World of Remnant (maybe even literally), and we'll get to see more of the Grimm Corsairs!_**

 ** _With that said, I'll finally admit to you all (and myself) that this story has to become either a Bi-monthly story or a monthly one, because School and the Robotics team I'm on has really been eating up my schedule._**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 18: Mirthful Combat**

 ** _Day #6_**

 ** _June 10, 2015_**

 ** _Earth_**

 ** _Whoa. I'll never get used to that._** Yang thought. ** _Feels good to be back, though_**

We were in the middle of a large clearing, _-free of Grimm, thank God-_ and stood up. There was a large rattle as the pile of bones moved as we sat up. "Now that I think about it, we've probably killed the biggest Grimm in Remnant history." Yang said, beaming as she cracked our knuckles.

"Y'know, why didn't we just shock it to death with our coat of many colors?" I said.

"Because this looked cooler?" She responded. We facepalmed, then our ears perked up. It was twilight, and I could hear the faint, yet distinct, whine of a jet engine in the distance, getting nearer. We dropped to the ground and started feeling around for Crescent in the pile of bones. "This is disgusting!" Yang said, sticking her tongue out as we groaned.

 _At least they're picked clean!_ We shuddered at the thought of the alternative. Soon, we spied it inside a broken ribcage. "Ah! There you are!" I said, picking the scythe up. The impact had apparently reverted it back into its storage mode. The jets were louder now, almost overhead, and I saw the jet exhaust flaring as the engines twisted 90 degrees. The wind started to pick up, swirling leaves everywhere.

"Whoah..." we said in unison, looking up.

 ** _That better be ours..._** Yang groaned.

 _Probably is. They're the only ones who know where we are._

"FREEZE!" A feminine voice yelled, hoarsely, and the wind gathered itself into a horizontal funnel, catching us off guard and blasting us backwards into a grove of trees.

 _I know that voice!_ I thought, as we shakily stood to our feet. I heard a cracking sound, and I looked up.

"Oh no, not-" We stammered.

"Oh, _yes._ We caught up with you, you thieving wretch! What the hell'd you do with my jet?" The woman demanded, slamming us with another gust of wind. It was the former pilot of our new home.

"Who are you?" We said.

"Oh, so _now_ you wanna get to know me? Shoulda thought of that before you threw us out the cargo bay." She growled, using the wind to propel herself towards us. We put our fists up in traditional brawler stance.

" _FIGHT_ " a strange, deep voice boomed from above, causing all of us to jump. She skidded to a stop five meters away and looked up. We followed her angry gaze. It was our jet, but it looked very different from the last time I had taken the time to look at it. It was covered in Blades, like a porcupine - ** _a what?_** \- , but the ship was covered in dents and scratches, and some of the blades were broken off or bent.

 _I guess this is what GrimmSever mode looks like from the outside._

"What've you done?" The woman whispered in horror, turning her head slowly in our direction with murder in her eyes, and a dark strand of hair fell out. In the darkness, we could barely make out several other shadowy figures stepping out from the trees, gathering around us in a semicircle, boxing us in.

 _A little help?_ I thought, as I didn't wanna have any more unnecessary fights. _Yang, you got this, right?_ I was sore from killing Grimm and falling an unknown distance. Again.

Then the Second jet appeared, and all hell broke loose. She screamed in fury, and charged at us like a woman possessed. From each elbow extended a pair of lightly-colored tonfa, and she fired at us as she charged. "I'LL RIP YOU APART!" She roared.

 _She must think we killed Nate!_ _Now that we know she's special to Nate, w_ _e need only subdue her until he can get here, hopefully._

We stopped thinking, and began moving together instinctively as we had during the previous battle. and we switched Crescent into assault mode, unleashing a barrage of bullets in Vee's direction while using the recoil to maneuver to the side. She jumped, impossibly fast over our spray of bullets, and was inches away from our face when her entire countenance changed from enraged to sadistic. We caught her blow on Crescent, fortunately. She was attempting to overpower us with her block, but for all her ferocity, she wasn't very strong. Suddenly, we heard the snap-hiss of a mode switch. A sudden, hard shove threw us down, creating a small crater behind us.

W _hoah! Where'd_ that _come from?_

The tip of her tonfa had flipped 90 degrees backwards, using recoil as extra force behind her attack! We delivered a hard kick to her stomach, causing her to flip backwards, sliding a few feet back before dropping to one knee. We had barely even moved our arm before she'd leapt forwards, knocked Crescent out of our hands, then impaled us with her tonfa, now transformed into twin blades.

"AARGH" We yelled as she got up, leaving the swords in place.

 _ **Wait. Shouldn't getting stabbed be a whole lot more painful?** _ Yang thought. We could see the lady put her hands to her mouth, as if trying not to burst into laughter at something. Moving to get up, we found ourselves free. She hadn't even stabbed us! "WHAT THE FUCK, BITCH?!" I yelled in rage before covering my mouth with my hands. We ran at her, then a brilliant spotlight illuminated the area.

Descending -no, make that _racing_ \- the descanding ship's boarding ramp was a short, bulky man in a black uniform with a light green trim, Seraph, and another guard armed with a sniper rifle of some sort. The short guy ran past us, but with great effort, we ran towards Seraph.

"Sue-I mean, Seraph!" We smiled amidst the confusion, catching her and giving her a hug. She groaned, but smiled, too. "Leggo o'me, you're crushin' me innards! What the 'ell a' you made of?" She softy pounded our back, feeling something protruding outwards.

"Still as lovable as yesterday, I guess." I muttered, wondering what she meant.

"So, shorty, this the new batch?" Vee said, chuckling in a sigh of relief.

"Nah, they made up some apparently _Bullshit_ story about you getting killed." In a flash, Short Guy was on her, hugging Vee very tightly in a manner totally unbefitting friends, as well as making me feel _really_ uncomfortable.

 ** _Well, he did think she was dead, soo..._**

"Tch" I replied, jokingly shielding Seraph's eyes as the reunion started to get even more...intimate.

"Ahem." Aric called over the loudspeaker "Present company, Nate..."

 _Oh so_ that's _who that is..._

"Oh, yeah. Right. C'mon Vee," Nate smiled, reddening, taking her hand "we've got a lot of 'catching up' to do." He led her into his ship, and the lift shut behind them.

"Phew, at least one of us is gettin' laid tonight..." Aric muttered, breathing out in relief. His voice turned stern as he addressed the pirate crew "You guys there. Yeah, all you out there. You're under arrest for assault, maybe even murder, but if you come nicely, we'll not make mincemeat out of you."

"What do you mean?" A tall, lanky pirate called out

"Oh yeah... _you_ bastards almost killed my friends! And however many kids at Beacon!" I growled, pushing Seraph behind us to protect her if necessary.

"Says the one who hijacked our ship and pushed us all out an airlock above who-knows-where with no food or drink!" A pirate yelled upwards. "Number one: you may control the high ground, but what if we get your friends here?" he said, motioning to us. The sniper swiftly switched the gun into a sort of energy shield, but eyed both groups warily. "And Number two: we were just hitching a ride and providing support for Despayre. We didn't have anything to do with those young ladies, 'cause Mr. D. told us to leave them to him. We were basically just passengers. We landed, picked the girls and guys up, and left. By the way, those were smoke bombs, or at least, that's what he told us. I wasn't told what the mission was for, but I knew my part."

"Oh yeah?" Aric's voice boomed "Then why can't I raise Beacon on the comms?"

The man facepalmed "Dude. Have you ever heard of signal jamming?" He said, dumbfounded.

"Oh. shut up." The cannons on the bottom started spinning, ready to fire at a moments notice.

"Can I shoot them _now_?" Nora squealed over the external speakers.

" Y'know what? What happened to those girls that would..." I glared at him, resisting the urge to tear him limb-from-limb. He noticed. "oh... shit. Those were your friends?" He whispered to his compatriots, who nodded.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say this: Fuck Despayre, he didn't pay us well anyway." He spat, and his men hooted with laughter. "His men have done nothing good for this operation. We lived in seclusion for _decades_ and he exposes us in _minutes_. I'll not work for an idiot like that any longer, eh guys?" His troops raised their weapons and fired off a salvo into the sky, then burst into laughter and surged forwards towards us. The guns erupted, spewing bullets over their heads, causing them to gasp in surprise.

"Sorry about that. Trigger happy gunner. Also, she was one of the hostages." Nate muttered. Yang and I began to calm down, unclenching our fists. I had an idea

"Hey, why don't you help us take Despayre down?" I asked.

They looked at me in utter surprise, as if I had just ripped my clothes off and screamed 'let's burn the moon'. "I'm no traitor. I'll desert, but I will _not_ hurt my friends for your personal vendetta." their leader said, gaze hardening.

My fists tightened. Sure that was what it all boiled down to, but Despayre hadn't just hurt Ruby. He'd hurt my friends. He'd bombed Beacon- duds or not. That was provocation enough.

"You think this is about my friends? Think again!" I shouted. "I've travelled _worlds_ to bring Despayre to justice!"

 ** _Fucking Liar!_ ** Yang joked.

 _Technically, we have. Every night._

"Pfft, I doubt that. Mr. D is a psychopath, but he's a product of Remnant. You've probably only been after him for what- a year? Two? The man is crazy, but I've fought beside the Corsairs since I was your age- younger, even. It's all I've ever known-"

"Then help me- help _us_ change that. Your friends might not be lucky enough to get away. The Atlesian military will come rolling in eventually, and if it were my citizens in danger, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to drop a nuke on your base. We need to remove the tumor, so the body can heal. Cut the offending eye out. Plus," I added, "we're your only hope of getting back to civilization alive."

"Hmph," he snorted "It's not like we're on an island."

"Okay, wrap it up." I said, fed up with these guys. I had one last, _teensy_ ace up my - ** _our_** \- sleeve. I raised my arm and twirled my finger in a circle.

 ** _Ooh, cold..._ ** Yang smiled inwardly. ** _That's_ such _a bluff._**

"C'mon, Seraph." Yang said, motioning for the girl to follow. The jets began to increase the sound of their whine, earnest to escape the brewing danger, and as we stepped onto the ramp, the jet began to rise slowly, foot by foot. Yang and I pushed Seraph ahead of us, and the sniper did the same near the other ship, which, unfortunately didn't get the memo. It lowered it's lift even father down to enable the sniper to get aboard easily.

"Hey! Whatdya mean 'our only hope'?" The pirate questioned, confliction evident on his face. I groaned I just stared back at him, and removed the rebreather covering my face. Just for show, I let a crackle of electricity pass through our fingers, illuminating our face for a moment.

"What the..." he said, coughing in surprise. "What happened to you?"

"This happened during a rescue attempt of some of the students from Beacon. I'm Chrys." I said, raising my right arm in a small wave.

" And I'm Yang!" Said my blonde half, causing him to frown.

"Wait... stop..." He groaned, rubbing his salt-and-pepper beard. "Are you two conjoined twins?" He asked, puzzled.

"No, we're not. Long story, kinda hard to explain. Anyways, are you gonna help us or not?" I asked, still annoyed at the time we were wasting.

"Alright, alright! We know the way to the base. I guess we can help 'em a bit, eh guys?" His men grumbled, but nodded in agreement "On two conditions. If we fail, make sure our families get out." He paused, and I nodded. "Secondly, I and my men will- _UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES_ \- harm any of our comrades. We'll run your ship and make it work, but don't expect us to do your dirty work unless Despayre marches out with a Legion of his personal cadre." Once he had finished laying down his terms, the lift descended.

"Welcome aboard. Watch your step, and proceed straight to the lounge, where we'll inventory your weapons." Aric said over the loudspeaker. "But watch out for the girls. I mean, REALLY watch out They're not gonna be as forgiving as we are. You've been warned!" I stepped onto the lift, and, realizing a possible weigh dilemma, called for only Six persons at a time.

 ** _Really? Our 'elevators' are waay more powerful than yours._** Yang commented.

Dawn was cresting the horizon, and I suddenly began to feel weak.

 _Must be the adrenaline wearing off…_

Just to be safe, I looked down, and noticed a dark, shiny puddle appearing between our legs.

 ** _Is that blood?_**

 _Not gonna make a period joke, not gonna make a period joke…_

 ** _Just you wait until that time of month comes around…_**

We felt around, encountering nothing on our front. Then the Advril wore off. The floor never looked so inviting. Clenching our teeth, we attempted to a move to check our back. Seraph gasped.

"What?" I said, clutching my chest in confusion as the floor slipped out from under us. I vaguely remember Seraph catching us, then tripping forward and sprawling across our chest under our weight. The rest is a haze, though I know we didn't pass out, as we didn't leave Remnant. Next thing I knew, we were flying at breakneck speed to some unknown destination. I heard the word "Hospital" thrown around. Eventually, we came around completely, and we were lying in a hospital bed, garbed in an ominously black gown with yellow trim.

 _Not again…_ I moaned, blinking. The trim changed colors. It was now blue.

 _ **What the hell is happening?**_ Yang grumbled. Dammit, did the color change again? It was glowing _Jade_.

We looked around, only able to move our head for some reason. Our left shoulder was wrapped in bandages and I felt an intense ache in it.

"Oh. You're awake?" a feminine voice said unsurprisingly, causing us to turn towards it's source. It was a tall, modestly-endowed girl in a short, silvery dress that barely covered her thighs and left little to the imagination. She had her legs crossed, and she was sitting in a bolted down chair the color of midnight.

 _ **Perv…**_

 _Hey,_ you _try not to stare when an attractive guy's doing this to you._ I retorted.

 _ **Point taken. Hey, let's try moving! I think it was the arm, right?**_

 _ **No, the left. Duh.**_ I said sarcastically.

We tried moving it, but we couldn't.

"Wha-" we started

"Shh, shh. Don't move. You've been out for a long time." She said, moving over towards us.

We shot up, ignoring the pain that lanced through our shoulder.

 _Oh no, I've heard this happen before!_

 _ **Metal Gear Solid 5 doesn't count, not that I even know what that is.**_

"Who are you?"

"Don't you recognize me?" She said, incredulously, before giving us a twirl that lifted her already-short skirt dangerously high.

"You look familiar," I lied "now tell me how long I've been out!" I implored, trying to ignore my hormones as she got closer.

"Alright, alright, bloke. Ya got me! It's your ol' pal, Seraph! How'do I look?" She smiled, gingerly giving us a hug while avoiding contact with my injured shoulder.

 _Aw Hale Nah!_ I almost spat out, instantly feeling like a creep. I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment.

 ** _Hahahaha! Serves ya right!_** Yang was laughing her ass off.

 _You're never gonna let me live this one down, are you?_

"Uh..." I made some senseless noses with my mouth before Yang took over. "Nice to see you again, Seraph." She said, trying to wrap our good arm around her back to reciprocate the gesture.

"But seriously, mate, It's been 10 years."

 _ **"WHAT!?"**_

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **So. First off, RIP Monty. It's literally been about a year since I became a fan of RWBY. It's kinda up, but guess the day I became a fan? Febuary 6th, 2015. After bingewatching the entire first season on Crunchyroll in a two days, I went to look up the show to see if I had missed anything (Y'know, just in case), as well as to see awesome fanart. Imagine my surprise when -you guessed it- EVERYTHING I CAME ACROSS WAS SAD POEMS! So I'm al llike: What happened? did Someone die in the next season? Who is this Monty Oum person? Was he a secondary character? Imagine my utter embarrassment and sorrow when I looked up the show's cast. Now, I don't know about you, but I was too busy absorbing information during the show to watch the OP, so I always skipped them after ep 3. I had the biggest facepalm ever when I went to the Wikipedia page** **I don't need to go any further, but you can guess my horror.**

 **Anyways, I write all this to say. May God have mercy on your soul, Monty. I mean that as a compliment, not a diss. As you can probably tell, I waver all the time in my story writing. Thanks to all of you who tune in every time I upload a new chapter. I don't think this is very relevant, but I try to make this story as realistic as possible- the mental parts, at least. I actually based Chrys's mind off my own. THIS IS SOLELY BECAUSE I CANNOT PROFESS TO KNOW ANYONE ELSE'S AS WELL. Nothing else in the story is related to me, just his Fears and emotions. I honestly think that I've painted an accurate picture. I- sorry, guys. I've gotta deal with this idiot.**

 ***MUFFLED BG NOISE***

 _"No, I will not give you a bigger role, Hope. You've served most of your purpose in the narrative"._

 _ **"IT'S BECAUSE HE HAS ADHD!"**_

 _"What? Did that have anything to do with the story at all? Interrupt me one more time and I'm deleting your character from the A/N's."_

 _ **"..."**_

 _"That's what I thought."_

 _ **Anyways, I've gotta go to bed. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Love you all! BYE!**_


	22. Chapter 19: Exit Wounds

**Sooo hope you all liked RWBY Vol. 3! I'm liking it so far, however, I'm only on Episode 6, due to time constraints. Also, I'm liking this monthly format. You guys are getting more fleshed-out character development for all of the teams. Anyways, here's the next chapter! It's _kind_ of like the end of my Book 1 (not really). It's funny, but I was surprised that realize Chrys had missed a _key_ thing in the earlier chapters. You'll get it once you finish the chapter (or maybe you won't, so I'll put it in the ending A/N). Heck, you might've noticed this glaring issue before I did and it caused you to quit the story (in which case it doesn't matter, because you won't have gotten this far anyway?).**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 19: Exit Wounds**

 ** _Day: Unknown_**

 ** _Remnant_**

"No, no, no. **This can't be happening.** Where's Ruby? **Is she alright?** " We alternated, cold rage burning into our souls as we recognized that we both massively failed our duty to protect her. A few tears rolled down our cheek. The heart rate monitor was beeping out of control. We felt a hand on our shoulder.

"Hey, calm down. You did your best. Don't beat yourself up over it, mate. It's out of your control." Seraph whispered -smiling somehow, softly patting our shoulder. The truth in that sentence stung, but it only calmed me down a bit. I still wanted to know what had befallen Ruby. Even if it was just to avenge her, we had to know!

"Unfortunately, no new developments." She said, sounding sorrowful, but her expression said otherwise.

 ** _I guess she never met Ruby... They would've gotten along well..._** Yang thought.

"B-b-but is been a FUCKING _DECADE_! Surely there's more?" We ground out, feeling the invasive tug of tubes in our arm and our nostrils.

The door opened, and, strangely, _another_ Seraph walked in. This one was more familiar and was carrying our duster wrapped around something.

 _ **Actually, she looks like she did last time we saw her.**_

 _Her daughter?_ I absurdly smiled at the thought _._

"Hey Vee. What's the update on— _CHRYS_!?" Kid-Seraph said, almost dropping the bundle.

 _Really? We fell for that?_

"Wait, what? What the hell's going on here? How long _have_ we been out? Why is that jerk on _our_ ship and not Nate's?"

"Actually, if I remember correctly, _you're_ on _my_ ship, thank you very much!" The former pilot said, firmly, clenching her fists. A gust of wind flitted about the room.

"Alright, alright. Calm down, mates. We're on the same side!" Seraph sighted "Ms. Veronica was just playing a joke. It's only been a few hours, though I still don't know how she fit her arse into my clothes..." She said, muttering the last part to herself as she waved her hand dismissively and shifted the bundle to one arm.

We breathed a sigh of releif, pissed but thankful that it was _just_ a joke.

 _Wait, did Sue just say that?_ We thought, sniggering. The object of the crude remark just sputtered. The bundle made a noise, and started moving.

"Now, now. Calm down." She cooed, now speaking to the bundle, rocking it back and forth.

 ** _Almost like… a baby?_** I got several memories of Yang playing with Ruby as little kids.

 _P-ponytails?_ I said, struggling to keep a straight face as I saw them playing in a little wagon.

"Where'd that come from?" Yang asked, curious and eager to change the topic.

" _shh_! You'll wake 'im!" She whispered "We have a temporary solution, but he's hasn't tested it before, so I don't know if it'll work! Look." She said, peeling back a sleeve to expose a pale white, sleeping form with a breathing mask on its face.

"aww… itsh sho cute!" Yang said, launching us into chibi mode. It- **_he, obviously_** \- was pearl white, and- visible through the clear muzzle- had teeth the shape of diamonds and the size of my fingernail.

"That's not what a baby's supposed to look like…" I joked, before realizing this would just be another burden. "Great, just what we need. A kid."

"Hey, you're no old-timer either!" Vee cracked.

"Is it a Faunus?" Yang asked. "I don't think so. Don't see any ears." We said in response to our own question.

Vee interrupted us, clearing her throat. "I'm sorry, but before we go any further, I think we got off on the wrong foot."

"Ya _think_?" Seraph muttered.

"Yeah. I guess we did." I said, sighing. "Once Nate mentioned you, I kinda felt bad about throwing you out. Remember, I'd had a… fairly _horrible_ day. Anyways, let's try this again." I exhaled, finally managing to pull us out of Chibi mode and sit up on my elbow.

She nodded, thrusting her left hand out. "I'm Veronica Lance, Capitan of this vessel."

"And I'm-well. How _do_ I do this? I'm Chrys Stevens. The blonde's Yang Xiao Long." I grasped her hand with my right one, and she helped us sit up against the back bed.

"That doesn't make any- Oh." she started, then quieted "Oh. Anyways, to business. I've talked with your pilot and with Nate. I agree with My first mate. We were in the dark about the plan. We didn't ask questions, as-per-the-norm with Despayre's command structure. In other operations, I've had my suspicions about the target of his 'missions' for years, but this sealed the deal. I-" she paused, as if she was reflecting on something.

"How long have you had these suspicions?" We asked.

"For about a decade. Ever since we lost a dozen Corsairs capturing that woman, I've been… concerned for us, but I've held my tongue." She said, grimacing.

"Why?" I could tell there was more to the situation.

"When people ask questions like that, they're relegated to the most... _dangerous..._ jobs at the complex." She smiled remorsefully, breaking our gaze.

"Now, anyways," She said, switching back to the topic at hand "you guys took a pretty nasty wound during the fight yesterday. I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like you're gonna be able to use your left arm for awhile, until it heals."

"Put it in a cast or pump us fulla' drugs. We can do it." We snapped back as we realized how long this was probably gonna keep us out.

 ** _Y'know, that didn't sound half as cool as I thought it would._** Yang groaned inwardly.

"Did you not hear what I said? You're not going anywhere. It's a miracle it didn't pierce anywhere else! We should turn back, as you can't use your arm, and we have this weird baby to take care of. You can't use your strength to the fullest. No matter _what_ we pump you full of."

"What's the deal with us always running into setbacks while trying to save Ruby? I thought we could heal our wounds through aura or semblance!" I said, as supporting memories came to me from Yang.

 _ **We're**_ **supposed** _ **to be able to...**_ Yang confirmed it.

"I don't think these ones can be… we're having the same struggle with Bri-anne. It's like her aura is rejecting the wound. She can't heal it- well, not with what we have currently. The only place I know of that has meds like this is at Eclipse base or, as Aric says, Sub-Rosa central. "

"Beacon might have some." Lydia said, cocking her head and placing a finger by her lip as she walked in to stand by the doorway, boots clomping on the soft floor. She looked tired.

"Hey, L." Yang said, smiling bleakly, raising our right hand in greeting.

"Hey. How're you two doing?" She asked us, standing beside Seraph and taking the baby.

"We've done better, but the doctor says there should be no lasting damage." We said, shaking our head. "Now, how 'bout you? You look tired."

"So, what're you going to do now, o' captain my captain?" She said, leaning against the doorway, suppressing a snigger.

"We'll have to stop at the closest Medical facility. I hope it's near the pirate base."

"Are you kidding? Of course it is. It's inside of it-"

 _"Nope. Sub-Rosa central is waay closer. To us, anyway."_ Came Aric's reply over the comms.

"that's really creepy, mate…" Seraph muttered, obviously as surprised as all of us that Aric had been listening.

 _"Heard that. Anyways, Sub-Rosa central has an access point somewhere nearby. There might be someone there."_

"and if not?" Vee asked.

 _"It's all connected by HSTS. We'll be fine. It was two days journey by airship, but with this sucker, we'll be there in less than a day, and at the station in a day-and-a-half!"_ He said, cheerily.

"Dammit, how long will It be until I'm back to normal?"

"At least a week." Veronica said, looking away. _We_ inhaled sharply. Lydia exhaled in relief.

 _You've gotta be kidding me!_ It was like having the doctor tell you that your dog was lost, but you had to watch a long-ass infomercial before you could look for it!

 ** _Why so oddly specific?_**

"You need to take a break, Chrys. Ruby'll be fine for another week. Or two." She said, sighing.

"How do you know she's fine? I can still fight! Have _you_ been talking with Despayre?" I raged, surprising everyone- myself included- with the ferocity laced into my voice.

"You girls, go talk to Aric. I'm gonna have to deal with this guy. I'll be done eventually" Lydia said, motioning to the others to leave. They did so without hesitation.

"Are you some kinda goddam _informant_? Gonna kill me now?" I said as they walked out the door. Venom dripped from my voice.

 ** _Hey, Take a break, dude. She obviously cares for you and she-_**

"Dammit dude. _CHILL_!" Lydia said, slapping me full across the face with a loud CLANG! She was wearing a heavy glove. It didn't hurt, but it got my attention. She wrenched the tubes out of us with a sickening _POP!_

"What ar-" I started to ask, more surprised than snything, then she summoned all of her strength and flipped the bed, throwing us onto the floor. Pain blossomed in our shoulder as it hit the floor first, causing us to curl into a ball- again- as the wound re-opened from the movement. It bled a nasty, grey fluid in addition to the blood.

 ** _What did you do?_** Yang sounded genuinely worried!

" _We_ need to rest. Think past your person. Your friends have gone through stuff even worse than you in the past week: Pyrrha _died_. Weiss was beaten unconscious and almost _raped_. Brie got speared, same as you. Plus, you've had the whole group working as if it was just a regular day. They're tired, Chrys. They've gotten little-to-no sleep over the past few days. They could've lost friends at Beacon, and they know that but for some reason, they're out here helping you look for their missing leaders. Do you understand?" I stopped mid-sniffle, surprised at her words. At first, it had seemed like she was trying to comfort me, but now...

"Yeah, I know; this is the scene where the hero gets told all of his actions are justified, and that it's not his fault but that's just not true. Am I tired? Damn straight! Will I regret this later? Possibly! But does it need to be done? Yes."

"What are you-" I started.

"Get up. Fight me." She commanded, cutting me off icily, stepping back five paces and crossing her arms. We were still bleeding, and the pain was intensifying minute-by-minute as the drugs we were apparently on wore off. I realized that I had lost. I was silent.

Grudgingly, I glared at her, angrily ashamed as I realized her point. We weren't going anywhere; no matter what drugs they put us on, we'd never operate at 100% efficiency. Our teams needed rest. They needed time to recover. But what to do about Ruby- _**and Jaune?**_ I think she noticed my glare and interpreted it as another challenge, as she continued looking at me with her stone-cold gaze. I carefully shifted my stare from her eyes to her legs- shaking a little- before finding my way back to her eyes.

After a few minutes of this staring contest, her steely gaze softened after I shifted my gaze from her eyes to the black bracelet she had somehow picked up in our travels. She exhaled, and slowly - _deliberately_ \- walked over and wrapped her arms around us in as big a hug as she could give us. I think my surprise was obvious, as I'd never been so touched by a gesture, especially from someone whom I thought hated me for so long. I started to sniffle as I realized what Yang had said was true.

 ** _Don't do it, man..._**

 _I'm sorry, Yang..._ Tears began to roll down our face. Lydia stiffened.

"Dude, if you start crying..." She said, warning us but not breaking the hug.

"Sorry, L..." I stammered out before losing it completely and just uncontrollably sobbing in her arms. I couldn't see it, but I swear she was rolling her eyes. I could hear her sigh in exasperation before muttering something under her breath and continuing.

"I know it's hard, but you've gotta learn when to rest." She whispered, leaning back and massaging our shoulders, looking up at us.

 ** _She's got a point. I had to do the same with Blake last semester._**

 _Shame how sometimes we forget our own advice, eh?_ I thought, smiling sadly. "Wait, did you just call me the _Hero_?" I said, puzzled. She looked away, silent fir a moment before continuing.

"Yes, we _did_ get contacted by Despayre;" she paused "but it was _his_ doing. He knows we're on our way. He also knows you're injured- though I don't know how. He said he's waiting, and that he wouldn't injure Ruby until you're healed again. Said there was no fun in prodding a hornet's nest when they're all incapacitated. So you're fine for now." Awkward silence filled the room for a minute, before she continued "Now, I'd say I'm sorry for slapping you, but that'd be a lie." She said smiling slightly as she saw the relief in our eyes from the news. "I _am_ sorry for reopening your wound, though. That was unintentional."

"Oh yeah. My wound. What is that stuff? Is it poisonous?" We said, now focusing on ours and Brie's predicament.

"I don't think so, but we'll have to do something about your blood loss, as well as see if we can get the weird, grey fluid out of your body. Hmm..." She paused in thought. "Ah." She said, holding up a finger "Maybe we'll do a dialysis to clear it out in one fell swoop." She said, chopping her hand diagonally away from her body "Or maybe not." She murmured to herself.

"Okay, and Pyrrah and Weiss? Are they resting?" We asked.

"No, Weiss is currently being watched by Blake to make sure she's not plotting to kill the old crew, and Pyrrah's been up on top of the ship. Brie & Tiffany are watching over her to make sure she doesn't do anything... rash..." She stopped and looked at me as she got up after a final pat on the back and reset the bed back to its normal position.

"Yeah, I understand. You should send her down here once you help me back into my bed. And hook me up to the IV." Yang said, and she nodded.

"Will do. wouldn't want any casualties." She sarcasticlly, connecting the needle back into our arm. After a few minutes, the pain would begin to subside. She looked at us, quizzically "Anything else?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

"Oh yeah." I said, smiling "What's on the menu? I'm starving!" She rolled her eyes, and began to walk away, but Yang grabbed the smaller girl's arm as she went past.

"He means _Thanks_. He'll never admit it, but I think he genuinely likes you, Lydia." Yang said, and we blushed/smiled. Lydia tensed up, like someone had pricked her between the shoulder blades, and looked away.

"N-not like that..." I added "like a good friend!" She sighed -hopefully relieved- and smiled- a genuine one, from ear-to-ear.

"I know what she means, Chrys." She said trying to hide her smile while she turned back towards us and gave us a final hug before quickly departing. The door hissed shut behind her, and we were left alone in the room.

 _So... This I what it feels like to be incapacitated, huh?_

 ** _Yeah, I guess so._**

 _It's a whole lot more boring than I anticipated_.

 _ **It hasn't even been a minute!**_

 _It's gonna be a long day, isn't it?_

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **So there you have it: CBLT Crisis, Week One. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm quitting FF now that I've got a compete story!**

 **Just kidding. This is totally not a complete story. The next chapter will be an epilogue for Book one. I still don't know if I'll start uploading The next Section as its own Story, or just a continuation of this one. Currently, I'm leaning towards the latter. Also, with regards to the Beacon story I mentioned in an earlier chapter featuring Cardin and CFVY, I don't know if I'll continue working on it or not. Not because you guys aren't showing any interest, but because with Vol. 3 giving me some new ideas, I've got a plan to do everything I was going to do with them, with CBLT and the rest of the gang. Who knows, maybe I'll post the CFVY story as a oneshot. Also, I swear, it's just a coincidence that all three of those teams start with C.**

 **Why do you think the wounds won't heal? What was that grey stuff leaking out of the wound? This And more will be answered in chapters yet to come! no, It's not a magical infusion the will turn Crang and Brie into WereGrimm (I literally thought of that, then scrapped it cuz' it was stupid and random). After all, like, when would they be out at night to see a full moon on Remnant? Hell, Their moon is _BROKEN._ It just wouldn't work.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! BYE!**

 **Wait! I almost forgot! The thing I mentioned that Chrys forgot was that, for team CBLT, it's felt like almost two weeks have gone by, seeing as they leap from one world to the next each night. Lydia had to remind him that everybody else needed to rest. Actually, she planned to do that anyway, even before Crang was injured.**

 **Okay, now that I've got that off my mind, bye for _real_! See you in the next chapter! **


	23. Chapter 20: Visions

_**Hey guys! Darth Uber here! Instead of a CFVY oneshot, I've decided to do something else for now. You'll see it soon! Anyways, this chapter picks up right after the end of the last one, so it's a**_ **bit _of a leap right into the conversation. I'll leave the rest of my A/N at the bottom, 'cuz I know you've been waiting almost 2 months for this..._**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 20: Vision**

 ** _Day: Unknown_**

 ** _Remnant_**

 ** _More to the point, you should worry about what you're going to say to Pyrrah._**

 _What do you- oh. Shit. Forgot about that. It seemed like a good idea at the time._

 ** _Well, you'll do fine. Just talk to her like you usually do. I'll interject from time-to-time, if that helps._**

 _Gee, that's reassuring. Okay, I think I know how to start._

 ** _Well, we can't get up, I don't think. We can now sit up, though_.** She said, catching a thought.

We debated for a few more minutes until the door hissed open and Pyrrah rolled in.

"Oh my God, Pyrrah, are you alright?" I said, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and beckoning her over with my free arm. "What happened?" She was in a wheelchair that looked more like a small factory on wheels than anything else.

She smiled- a small, tired smile that still managed to look warm. "This is the result of everyone else's concern. I'm actually fine. They just wanted me to stay off my feet and rest." she said, indicating the wheelchair.

"Oh, that's good." We said, relieved. "listen, I'm _really_ sorry about pushing you so hard lately."

"What do you mean?" She asked, apparently puzzled by my apology.

"I haven't given you any time to rest, asked you how you were doing, or even spoken to you much. It's just… well, How are you feeling?"

She got a sad look in her eye, and said nothing.

"Oh. okay." I said quietly, catching on and switching the topic. "How's your head doing?" I said as I remembered the abnormal circumstances surrounding her "death". I had a lot of questions about that, but, hey I couldn't exactly ask her to think about a traumatic experience.

"I've been suffering from headaches ever since…" She started, then she stopped, concentrating hard on something.

 _Oh crap,_ I inwardly cringed.

"Are you... okay?" I asked, carefully.

"Well, aside from the headaches, I think… I think I'm experiencing some sort of memory loss."

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, it only started occurring during the battle with the Nevermores. I tried to catch you! And I couldn't! I knew you guys were fine, but it still worried me. Why couldn't I use my powers?" She said, more to herself than to us.

"Pyrrah, c'mere." I said, beckoning with my free hand. She moved to wheel herself over, then caught my meaning

"The solution to everything isn't a hug, Chrys." She said quietly, smiling softly.

"I've yet to reach that point, I guess." I smiled ruefully. She slowly rolled forwards. Beckoned her closer, I leaned forwards and began to her a close hug, which caused the room to go black, apparently, then erupt in a blaze of light, stunning me before my yes could adjust.

We blinked. The room had disappeared! We were in a bright, sunny meadow.

"Am I back in Pyrrah's mind?" I thought, surprised to hear my thoughts aloud. "Oh shit, what if I think about Ruby?" Instantly, she appeared, just as she had looked the time I left for testing.

"Hey," she said, causing me to stumble.

"R-ruby?" I stammered, confused. "What the hell are you doing here?" I started to run towards her, but a blonde blur cannoned past me towards the crimson figure. _when did her weapons start- oh, yeah, this isn't reality_.

" _SIS_!" Yang yelled, arms outstretched. As she reached Ruby, however, she passed through her leader like she was nothing, hitting the ground in a heap that slid for a couple of meters. Both of us confused, I slowed and cautiously walked forward until I was right in front of her. Extending my right hand, I went to grasp her arm.

I was grabbing air, just like Yang had done.

Her appearance changed; now, she was covered in grime, bruises, and was that... BLOOD? Her cloak was nothing more than a ragged piece of fabric, and her dress was rent across the stomach and arms, revealing the burn marks of prolonged electric shock.

"You were supposed to save me, Chris." She moaned a mournful, spectral sound that chilled me to the bone, blankly staring into my eyes. I tried to tear my eyes away from her, but I couldn't. there were deep bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept for days. As by then I realized I couldn't do anything, and barely breathe, I just sank to my knees, not even bothering to catch myself. Fortunately, someone did. For a moment, I thought that the apparition had become tangible, then I heard the voice.

"You see him too?" A familiar sound exclaimed, almost managing to hide the brokenness just beneath.

"See who?" I croaked, feeling sick.

"J-jaune" Pyrrah whispered the name.

"W-what the hell is this?" I said, "I see a battered R-ru," I couldn't even say her name.

"Th-then, the image must changes for different people?" She groaned.

"I guess it does." I sighed, relieved, if only a bit.

"What does it mean? Are these phantoms real? Like, I mean, are Ruby and Jaune _actually_ injured?" She said, some of the sorrow gone from her voice.

"What are you two talking about? Why'd I go through Ruby as if she were nothing?" Yang said, apparently unable to see the visions the same way as us.

"Remember, we're in Pyrrah's mind. I wonder if that's it." I stood, shakily, and continued Yang's thought

"Pyrrah, have you seen this vision before?" I asked.

"No. This is the first time I've seen it." She said, furrowing her brow.

"Damn. So, let's sit down and talk this out. Please ignore the spectral figure in the background. As a matter of fact, let's just sit in a row facing _away_ from it." I said, managing a weak smile.

The girls agreed, and we sat down in the soft grass opposite the vision.

"So, why do you think we're the only ones who can see the two?" I said, flatly, as I sat down next to Pyrrah and Yang did the same on the other side.

"Remember when Hope tried to take you over?" Yang said, looking at me.

"Yeah, he called his…thing… the 'Seed of Doubt'. Said it was to destabilize my mental capacity, but I used my willpower to turn it into something good. I mean, it's not like he can easily control your mind, Pyrrah. Your mind is yours, and here, you're nigh invulnerable. He said it himself: you have even more focus than I do!" She looked at me confusedly. "Well, Hope did, anyways." I added, out of breath "Not helping? Okay, I'll tell you about it later" I said, sensing no change in her expression of confusion.

"Okay. I _think_ I see what you're saying. So, if this situation ever happens again, then all I need to do is _will_ him to get out? Not trying to be mean, but that doesn't sound right..." She said, almost causing me to laugh at the true absurdity of the topic.

"Well, I think so. I still don't know the extent of my powers, nor how they're activated, however; I'm guessing they're tied in with my emotions." I said, embarrassed.

"Well, that's normal at first." The Redhead said, looking at me "Yang's is tied into her anger, as you no doubt know." She said, suppressing a smile. "Currently, yours is too, if I remember correctly." She said, looking at me.

"Yeah, that kinda sucks." I said, nodding grimly in agreement "It's done me nothing good."

"Well, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's saved me, so I can't complain. Neither can anyone else, for that matter. Your semblance is your semblance, you can't change that." She quoted, patting my shoulder "I learned that from an old friend."

We sat there for a few minutes, saying nothing.

"Yang, _does_ your semblance only activate when you're angry?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes and no. It definitely works _best_ when I'm angry, but it can sometimes appear when I'm _really_ frustrated with something." She said, looking at me.

"Oh so that's why there's been a big burnt spot in class since finals?" Pyrrah teased.

Yang smiled sheepishly at her. "Hey, it's not my fault that math's so complicated!" She laughed, jokingly punching the Amazon in the shoulder.

"Okay, so, when are we gonna get out of your mind, Pyrrah?" Yang asked, raising a valid point.

"I honestly don't even know how you got in here in the first place." She admitted.

"So, looks like this power is tied into strong emotions like sorrow and pain." Yang surmised.

"or passion…" I muttered, remembering the conversation with Ruby.

Pyrrah raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Yang, however...

"Hmm? What's that?" She said, grinning.

"Poor choice of words, I swear!" I groaned.

"Spill the beans, SeaBee!"

"Stop calling me that!" I ground out.

"I mean, we both know I'll learn it as soon as we leave her mind anyways, so you might as well share." She said, jabbing a finger towards the redhead "No offense."

"Hey, he doesn't have to share it with me, that's between the two of you!" The Amazon said, waving her hands as she began to smile. The world snapped back to the medical room. We opened our eyes and almost bumped into our head into Pyrrah's.

"Well, that was…interesting." She gasped, then went back to her previous expression. She let out a sigh as she rolled back in her wheelchair. "If you need me, I'll be in the Sleeping quarters." She said briskly, as she left.

We had no more visitors that day, aside from Blake stopping by once and Tiffany bringing us food.

"Hey, Blake?" I asked as the raven-haired teen moved to leave.

"Yes?" She replied.

"I don't know if it's appropriate to ask this-" her eyes narrowed "but would you be able to remove your bow when you're around us? I think you look a lot better without it."

She stared at me like I had just told her to jump off a cliff. Her piercing amber eyes locked onto mines like a GrimmBuster on a Beowulf "Is that Yang talking, or Chrys?" I couldn't tell if she was angry or surprised.

"Actually it's both." I thought I saw her gaze soften _just_ a fraction. "You know how when two musicians have to share a drum, they take turns?" She nodded, slowly. "Well, that's how we are. Yang exerts a _lot_ of influence on what I say, but I do the same thing with her; _but_ , If we both try to talk at the same time, it just comes out as gibberish. I'm not doing a good job at explaining this, am I?"

"No, but I get it." She blushed slightly "All these past few days, I never knew if I was talking to Yang or Chrys, and that got on my nerves. Hearing you say that helped me understand that I've been talking to _both_." she said, scratching her head. "Thanks for clearing that up for me." she said, sauntering over, which triggered an automatic response that I didn't even know I had.

"Blake, I don't care if you're in heat, you're not having _my_ babies!" I yelped, crawling back up against the headboard. She stopped; looked at me in confusion; then _laughed_. I'd never heard her laugh before. I just froze.

"Brie told me about you little _encounters_. She's really sorry, but don't worry, we're working on controlling her urges." she chuckled, grabbing my hand and placing it on my chest.

"I promise not to try to use it to my advantage." I started to say, but was interrupted by Yang.

"Don't make promises you can't necessarily keep." Yang said, causing me to blush.

"Aw, c'mon. when would I ever need to use-"

"See, that's what she's talking about." Blake said, speaking to me "Yang, don't tell me. I don't want to know his thoughts. That's between you and him." she also reprimanded my other half.

As she walked out the room, I realized something: _us_ _males were heavily outnumbered on this voyage_.

 _ **Don't get any Ideas...** _

As we drifted off to sleep, we wondered upon the days' events and how fortunate it was that the Nevermore's Barb missed our heart. I didn't know what would've happened if I died here. On that note, we fell asleep.

 **(_-_-_-_END CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **So, what I've been working on is probably easy to guess, so I'll tell you. The other story -which should be up by the end of this week or the week after next- is from Ruby's POV. it's set in the present tense, starting as soon as team CBLT leaves. I'm having a ton of fun writing it, as it's giving me a lot of time to flesh out some of the machinery & devices that I promised earlier. I've got he first two chapters drafted, and I'm just adding the finishing touches. I've been freakin' busy now that the end of semester's coming up, but with these two stories, maybe they'll give you fans something to hope for in between the updates! anyways, I've gotta go! Bye!**


	24. Chapter 21: No Excuses

_**Hey guys... Here's an extra-long chapter since I took an almost year-long break. I actually did continue to work on the story the entire time, but I just haven't edited and uploaded it yet.**_ ** _Also, I'm not taking the time to retcon Crang's injury. It's on their right side. Now and until it heals._**

 **(_-_-_-_BEGIN CHAPTER-_-_-_)**

 **Chapter 21: No Excuses**

 ** _Day: Unknown_**

 _ **Earth**_

As we awakened back on Earth, I realized that we weren't in my room anymore, or even my house, for that matter. We were in what appeared to be a hospital room, well, a real hospital room, not a small Med-bay. I looked to my right, expecting to see Yang there, but she wasn't. _Huh_.

"Yang?" I called, expecting to maybe hear her on the other side of the partition bisecting the room, or in the bathroom at least, but there was silence. I tried calling her again, but I received no reply.

 _Well, that's not too weird, It's not like we're related_. I thought _. I guess I should call the nurse._ I sat up and searched around until I found the buzzer located on the side of my bed. After a few minutes, a male nurse came in.

"You're awake?" He said.

 _Oh man, not this again._ I'm reminded of yesterday.

"Yes, I am. I'm also fine." I said that without thinking, but surprisingly, I was. I realized I didn't feel any pain.

"Yeah, we figured that. You didn't seem to have any injuries apart from some bruises and a loose tooth. How'd that happen?" He asked, taking a clipboard hanging from the side of my bed and writing something on it.

"I fell out of a tree." I said, smirking at the stupidity of it.

"C'mon dude, what are you, 12?" He said, frowning at me "Didn't your mom ever teach you to use some common sense?"

"Yeah, she did, but it was a… special… situation."

"Alright, tell me about it. I was going to need to file a report anyway." He said,

"So long story short, an... an _adventurous_ friend got her hair stuck in a tree, and I was helping her get untangled. Then the branch I was sitting on broke, and I fell."

"Ah, the Blonde girl?" He said, looking up from his writing and tapping his pen against the clipboard nervously.

"Yeah, her. Where is she, anyways?" I asked

"She's in the Intensive Care Unit." He replied, wincing and immediately regretting his words.

The pieces fell together. When she first punched me out, I woke up with bruises, but when we were impaled, it was on her side! _That's why I don't feel any pain, because, as far as whatever weird rules control this merge is concerned, she's the injured one!_

"Take me to her!" I asked him.

"I can't."

"I'm her friend." I groaned.

"She's not showing up in any of records, so as far as we know, she has no relatives or friends. She's a Jane Doe." He said, before realizing he had said too much once again.

"Then what've you been doing to her? It's not like you can operate on her, according to that logic."

"I'm not at liberty to discuss a patient's Medical Records." He said, annoyed.

"What if I can give you her information? Then would you let me see her?" I asked.

"Well, that-" His pager went off.

 _"Nurse Barnstein, you're needed in the Quarantine room. Goldilocks is acting up again."_ A voice quietly emanated from the small speaker.

"On my way. Be prepared to restrain her." He said, speaking into it.

"Just tell me something! Is she okay?" I pleaded. _Man, I can't believe it. I'm pleading to see_ her _._

"We don't know. We got the bleeding stopped. That's all I can tell you." He said, returning the clipboard to my bedside and moving to walk out.

"Wait!" I called after him.

"What?" He responded.

"Her Name's Yang. Yang Xiao Long. I'm sure you won't find her in your databases though." I said.

"Thank you for that information." He said, and he walked out the door.

I waited until the door shut, then I hit the buzzer again and got out of the cot.

 _"Patient 929 stay in your bed!"_ An intercom in my room went off.

Seconds later, a different nurse came in. This one was female, and her badge read ALCIA MATTHEWS.

"Nurse Matthews, what do I do now?" I asked "I'm clearly fine"

"I thought we told you;" she said chuckling lightly. I could tell I'd have a better chance with her than the previous one "stay in your bed."

"Yeah, you did, but my friend could be dying. I need to see her." I tried to smile back.

"How do you know she's dying? I'm sure she's fine." she said with a light smile.

"Please. I know she's in danger because the other nurse said she was in the Quarantine room."

Her face grew stern for a second "Which Nurse told you that?" she asked.

"Nurse Barnstein had his pager on. He also said you guys couldn't do much because she's a Jane Doe. I know what happened. I can help. Please, I just want to see my friend!"

"Okay. I assume you're referring to the belligerent Blonde." I nodded. She paused for a long moment, subconsciously nibbling at the end of her pen.

"Let me tell the doctors about this, then I'll come back in a few to tell you what they said." I nodded again. "Meanwhile, get back into bed and I'll let your mom know you're fine." She then left.

I followed her orders, then gazed out the window, noting the midday sun. I was high up in a sprawling city, so I assumed I at one of the larger hospitals in the area. I could've been wrong though. As I looked at the cityscape just outside my window, I couldn't help but lose myself in the scene.

After a few minutes, I began to grow tired, and my blinks became longer and longer.

I was startled by the sound of a door opening, and a second later, I was hit in the head with a bundle of clothes. My family had arrived.

(-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_)

After checking in with my family -who were overjoyed to see me okay and awake, I changed into some regular attire. Soon, the two nurses came back in. Ushering my siblings back out of the door, they looked expectantly

"Mrs. Stevens?" Barnstein questioned.

"Yes?" My mom said, frowning.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to step out for a moment." My mom looked pissed, but I shot her a reassuring gesture and with a final shake of the head, she complied.

As soon as she was gone, I noticed the looks in their faces; Alicia looked mildly annoyed, but Barnstein looked downright furious, which was hopefully a good sign for me.

"After consulting with the doctors, they said it would be within limits to let you see Miss Long." She said, and I tried not to grin.

"Barely."He added, tersely. "Come with me." He motioned, stepping into the hallway past my family.

Since I was already dressed, I followed him as he led me through the maze of corridors that made up the Hospital, muttering a hurried "I'll be back" to my mom as I walked past. After about 10 minutes, we came to the ward. It smelled like antiseptic and gauze, along with the faint tang of bodily fluids, and it was it by soft, yellow lights. It was also eerily quiet.

"Through here." He said, motioning to the third room on the right with his clipboard. It had a large window built into the wall, but the curtain was drawn, so I couldn't see inside. He didn't move to come with me, so, after an awkward few seconds, I stepped in.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. If the smell of antiseptic was strong _outside_ , I could literally _taste_ it in the air of her cubicle. A pair of doctors were standing beside her bed, and they looked up as they heard the door open. Scanning the room, my eyes fell upon a bed with the shape of a body clearly lying under a sheet. I paled, and my knees became weak.

"Is she…" I couldn't finish. None of this made sense.

"Nah, shes fine." the shorter doctor replied. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then why is she-"

"Dont ask me. something to do with her hair."

I walked over to the bed and warily peeled back the sheet, peering over it.

"No, don't look!" Yang said, snatching the covers back over her head and causing me to step back.

"Yang, you act as if you've seen a ghost!" I exhaled.

"I might as well have!" she retorted.

"Why's that?" I said, looking at the doctors "What's wrong with her?"

"She claims she was stabbed in her right shoulder, right under her collarbone. It's doesn't seem like it would be life-threatening, but she doesn't have any indication of a wound at all. We were able to stabilize the bleeding, but past that, and without an ID, we can't go any further." The tall one

"C'mon, Yang. It can't be that bad. Let me see."

 _Silence_

"Doctor, those restraints are in place, right?" I asked, forming a devious idea.

"Yes, but-" the taller one started.

 _SNAP_! I ripped the covers off her, but held them high. As expected, Yang reached up to grab it, but the restraints stopped her from grasping it. I quickly but carefully pulled them down past her ankles, proud of my ingenious plan.

 _CRACK_! I didn't move away fast enough, and her foot connected with my face.

"OW, YANG!" I said, holding my lip- which I'm sure was bleeding- and taking a step away.

"-she's quite belligerent. I'll get you an ice pack." The doctor finished, rolling her eyes and walking away.

"I don't get it, Yang. Why are you acting so childish?" I said, subsequently scanning her for injuries while tasting the blood from my lips.

"Says the one ripping blankets off sleeping female patients." The female doctor murmured to herself, shaking her head as she returned carrying a cold-pack.

"But I still don't know why you're acting so vicious." I moaned, groaning and taking the pack from the doctor and placing it over the throbbing cut on my lip.

"Anything happen to her hair?" I asked the doctors, as the swelling on my lip began to go down. "No. Nothing at all. We has to cut a little off, as you can see, to check for the supposed injury, but nothing else." The male replied.

"Also, you were sent down here only because the nurse said you had information on the girl and her 'injury', so if you don't, then leave." She said flatly.

"Alright, alright. You got a pad and Paper?" I asked the doctors, who nodded. "Okay, now her name is Yang Xiao Long; she's 17, I think, and she has one sister. We were fighting… an animal, and when we finished, we- I mean, _she_ \- soon collapsed. I thought it was from exhaustion and the argument we were having, but when we came to, I was in a hospital bed and she was in another." I finished, purposefully omitting most details & events. I read her name tag; Dala Jaeger.

 _Odd name_. I thought.

"What kind of animal?" The doctor eyed me suspiciously.

"A… bird." I said, trying not to smile.

She started at me in surprise. "That is what she- Yang, I mean- said happened, but as you can see," she said, peeling back the fabric to expose her shoulder area " there's no wound. Not even a scar or cut."

"Hey!" Yang said, pushing her hand away "What are you doing?"

"What kind of bird could do that, anyway?" The nurse asked, ignoring her.

"A Nevermore" Yang said quietly, causing Dr. Jaeger to ask her to repeat herself.

"Did you ever read Greek Mythology?" I interrupted. They both nodded "Have you ever heard of the stymphalian birds?"

"Yes, they belonged to Ares." Jaeger looked at me, then at Yang, then narrowed her eyes.

"Who's Ares?" the blonde asked, and was ignored by the doctor, who continued.

"You can't be serious. Are you about to tell me that a millennia-old _myth_ is responsible for this girl's supposed wound?" I started to answer, but she held up her hand. Apparently, it was a rhetorical question. "We're running tests as to her mental state. Are you sure you guys aren't on drugs? We could save a lot of time and money, if you tell me the truth."

The truth, or just what you went to hear? I thought to myself. "I'm not kidding. What else could make that kind of wound?" I said, gesturing towards Yang's shoulder.

"Really? A knife, a spear, or any other jabbing element." She said, crossing her arms "But I told you, there's no wound! Yet she asking for painkillers and acting like there is!"

"Not necessarily." I replied "Any of the weapons you just stated could be used to make that wound, but there's no trace elements of any of them, is there?"

She just smiled knowingly. The other doctor- who stood behind her- shook his head vehemently. _Don't do it._ He warned. I smirked, but barely heeded his warning.

"But there IS. NO. WOUND!" She ground out. "I can see you're going to be no help to me. I was wrong about letting you in." She turned back towards Yang, ignoring me."

"Now, are you SURE you've never done drugs before?" She asked. I blanched. I had never felt one of her memories where she had, but then again, it's never come up in our conversation.

"No, I've never done drugs. A little drinking, but no drugs." She replied coolly, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd thought she was going to stay listing off otherworldly drugs from Remnant that we'd never heard of.

"Well, we're still running blood tests to check, just to make sure." The male said, matter-of-factly.

"Then since you're doing that, and I know that'll take awhile, can you just discharge her and let me take her home? I'm sure you need the space for patients." I asked, hoping that they would. She would NOT do well by herself in the Hospital full of people who know how to ask the right questions, and I didn't want someone knocking on my door in the morning to arrest my parents for kidnapping.

"plus, she's fun to hang out with…" I mused aloud, causing them all to look at me.

"I'm sorry, did you just compliment me?" Yang asked, mockingly.

"…yes, I did…" I groaned, chiding myself for thinking aloud.

"Miss… Yang, do you have any objection to that? And before you answer, we don't really need the space. I just think you're wasting my time." She said, raking a hand through her hair before preparing to sign her clipboard.

"No, I don't. As much as I hate to admit it, he's a cool guy. And no offense, but I really never liked hospitals. Too quiet for me." Yang said, moving to sign for herself, but the restraints held her in place.

"Uh uh uh, Mrs. Stevens has to sign you out. She's the one who brought you two here when she heard you cry out, Yang. I'll send someone to speak with her now, then, if she signs, you can go." Dala replied, whistling softly into her mic.

 _"Yes?"_ Came the reply over the phone.

"Hello, this is Nurse Jaeger calling about the blonde. I need Mrs. Stevens to come down to Ward D-98." There was some sound I couldn't make out on the other end but soon, my mom came strutting through the door flanked by Nurse Barnstein.

"Is she gonna be alright?" She asked even before she saw Yang.

"Yeah, she should be fine. Just let her rest for a few days to get her bearings. Mrs. Stevens, will you be able to take her back home for the time being? We really have done all we can until the tests come back in a few days."

"What then?" I asked, curious, as my mom signed the waiver.

"Then, we see where we go from there." Nurse Jaeger said, softly, but sternly.

"What does that mean? What _tests_?" My mom asked, warily.

 _She sensed it too?_ I thought to myself, but the nurses walked out the room without responding.

"Well, I guess you're free to go, Yang. Here, let me help you up." I said, sit up.

She grimaced in pain, cursing and clutching at my shirt. "I can still FEEL it!" She growled into my ear as she leaned forwards.

"That's what happens when you go and get yourself impaled, Yang!" I whispered back, feeling a bit sorry that she had to bear both our pain. I rubbed her injured shoulder, and she tensed up.

"Really, Yang?" I chuckled ruefully "You've been in my mind for the last few days, watched me engage with friends, and you still don't trust me?"

"That's exactly why I don't." she mumbled, to which My mom just looked at the two of us like we were insane. I grinned.

"Can you walk?" I asked, to which she nodded.

"Yeah, my legs weren't injured at all. I just have this numbing medicine they gave me that makes it hard to make any precise movements, so you'll have to carry me." She said, groaning.

"Oh really, Yang? Funny, that didn't stop you from precisely kicking me in the face a bit ago." I replied.

She looked away.

"You're not getting off that easily!" My mom said, glaring at her and smiling.

(-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-)

As we drove home, there was a tense silence in the car. Yang and I were in the backseat, as neither of us were ready to face my mom. She looked furious and ready to yell. We completed the drive in silence.

Once we arrived, the two of us made a beeline for the house, but my mom grabbed both our shoulders and stopped us.

"You do know this isn't going to work, right?" she said to us.

"What do you mean?" Yang asked, sounding puzzled. I wondered, but didn't say anything.

"You're not sleeping in his bed anymore. We have a nice room in the basement that Mr. Stevens has prepared for you. It has a bed and a dresser.

"But I don't have any clothes..." Yang remarked. I wished she hadn't said that.

"Oh, you will. I'll not have my son sharing his clothes with a girl. It also just doesn't suit you."

"But where'll I get clothes?" she asked again.

"Chrys'll buy them for you." She said, smiling

"WHAT!? Mom, that's expensive! How much money do you think I make?" I said, nearly yelling.

"Calm down, CB, it's only three outfits. I'm not going to ask you to buy her a prom gown or anything…" my mom said, rolling her eyes.

"But still…"

"Hey," my mom said, raising her palms "you brought her into this world, so unless you've got a plan, you're taking care of her expenses. Or at least, most of them." She added.

I was silent. Then, after frantically searching my brain for a new subject, I came up with one.

"Mom, guess what Yang and I found?" I blurted.

"What?" She replied.

"We found a baby!"

"Oh great, first you've got a girl, now you've got a baby? Where'd you 'find' it?" she asked, sounding excited.

"Well, when Yang and I were-" I started, but Yang cut me off.

"We found him after we got out of the remains of a Monster! We don't know how he got there, but he's really pale!" she finished, summarizing the story briefly.

"So do y'all have milk?" My mom asked.

"Well, we wouldn't know, we're laid up in bed…" I said "But we're fine!" I quickly followed it up.

"So is that why I had to take you to the hospital?" she asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much. I guess it's our body sending pain signals to places that aren't injured. Which bring us to the question of how exactly does the whole process work?"

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"How do we control the body in the other world? Does our brain get bounced back and forth? Do our bodies get deconstructed and refused each night? That sort of thing." I said.

"Those are good questions, but right now, you two have a date set! Hurry up, it's getting late, and I know you want to hurry up and get to sleep!" She said, flicking the car keys at me. I caught them, and put them down as I ushered Yang into the house after me.

(-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-)

"So what're we doing again?" Yang asked as I opened my up my adorably chunky old Asus. "I thought we were going shopping."

"We are." I said, smiling as I realized that she might not've heard of the internet before.

"You have your own store, or something hidden in that closet of yours?"

"I wish, but no. Even better."

Nothing.

"Yang, you've never heard of online shopping before?" I asked, breaking into a cheeky grin.

"Nope. What line are we getting on?"

I searched my brain for the Remnant equivalent.

 _ **It's like the CCTS.**_

 _Thanks Hope,_

"It's like your wireless transmit system, but ours works independently of each other." I explained.

"Ohh, so is there a store on your network that we'll buy stuff from?"

"Yup. I can help you if you need it, or you can just pick your own clothes, and I'll buy them when you're done." I said, as I pulled up the site.

She looked at me for a second with a raised eyebrow, then said that I could go, and that she'd call me when she was ready.

"Alright, I'll see you later." I said, stepping away and leaving the room to get to work.

(-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-)

After awhile, I felt a fist tap my shoulder and almost jumped, but caught myself.

While I was waiting for her, I'd began drawing sketches of different machines I had hoped to have built in Remnant. Ever since I learned Remnant was mostly dangerous ocean, I'd been designing a modular, mobile rig/city that could be outfitted with different types of mining equipment, depending on what I discovered down there. I'd probably give it to Weiss to give to her dad (for brownie points), or I'd sell the idea to someone else for major money to fund my other inventions.

"You done?" I asked her, and she nodded with a glint in her eye.

 _Oh great, this better be cheap!_

I dragged myself down to the computer room, dreading what I'd see.

I scanned the shopping cart, scrolling straight down to the price. It was surprisingly reasonable. Then I scrolled back up to read through the cart.

"What the hell, Yang?" I whispered to her, pointing to the screen.

"What? I just brought 3 outfits, like your mom said."

"what kind?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"A party one, a Business-y one, and a regular one. Oh, and I brought some pajamas, underwear, and a swimsuit too; no more free show for you." She said, shaking her chest slightly.

That was the problem. She'd brought herself a tube top resembled her shirt on Remnant, some orange pajamas, a short black-and-yellow skirt and a yellow printed tee, as well as a pair of flats and some khakis and a button-up yellow blouse. But she also brought herself a TINY bikini and some underwear that'd put Mia Khalifa to shame…

"C'mon Yang, my mom'll kill me!"

"Hey, it's fine! I'll vouch for you!"

"Yang… that's not gonna help."

"Hey, a girls gotta have _some_ fun! I can't wait to meet other guys from Earth!" She said, grinning.

"Out of the question. Remember, we share a common memory. I don't want anymore of your memories!"

"Same here, you horny rhino! I get your thoughts regardless…" she said, swiftly clicking the SUBMIT ORDER button onscreen.

I snatched her hand away, but it was too late. A winking smile appeared on the screen, indicating that the order had been successfully submitted and processed.

I looked back at her. She was grinning too. I suppressed an urge to say anything, and I think Yang could tell that I was pissed. She just punched me in the shoulder again, lightly, and I felt some of my anger go away before she wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a big ol' Noogie.

"But hey, at least I'll be able to go out sometimes without looking like a Butch!"

"um, I don't think you can say that…" I said, letting out an angered sigh that was more of a laugh then I intend it to be.

"I can't wait until these clothes get here!" She exclaimed, a little too excitedly.

"umm, Yang, it probably won't even get here until next week—wait. Did you- DID YOU USE ONE-DAY-FUCKING SHIPPING!?" I said, my anger returning.

"Yeah, why?" She asked, looking shocked "it's only a little more, right?"

I rolled my eyes, remembering that I could modify my orders. I changed it back.

"For future reference- not that you're ordering anything without me- everything costs. So just go basic." I said. "Now C'mon, we've got a body to get back to."

 _ **END CHAPTER**_

 _ **So. I'm back. Life happened, and you know how that is. Anyways, I really enjoyed Volume 4. Love all the new character designs, but for some reason, Ren's and Blake's redesigns are the best! Must be the overcoats. I also like Ruby's and Yang's arm. She was gonna get one anyways, in my story.**_

 _ **Ruby went full**_ **savage _on Tyrion, lol. I didn't know she wa_ s _that badass. I honestly think that this past season was a bit too filler-y. It didn't really seem like they accomplished anything but some excellent world-building and setting the stage for Vol. 5. Now, I say all that, but if I were on the design team, I'd probably do the same thing. If they'd tried to go straight to the next academy, they'd have had to skip the journey to Haven, which_ also _wouldn't have been good. So in the end, I guess this was a good idea?_**

 ** _Favorite new character is Klein, btw. Least favorite new character is that Schnee boy. He looks suspicious af. But if he actually cares for Weiss, then I like him. But he currently is just too sweet, like straight caramel. (in retrospect, he was a sly asshole)..._**


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